La Mesita Ambassador Toolkit
Below you will find resources on our upcoming programs that you can share with providers in
your part of North Carolina! Please do not share the link to this page, we would like it to only be
accessible to ambassadors. Instead, please download/share links you find on this page!
If you have any questions about upcoming programs or ambassador responsibilities, please email Sofia and Megan at lamesita@elfuturo-nc.org
Check out our advertising flyers below! Both contain information on La Mesita’s mission and ongoing programs. The PDF version is a two-page document great for attaching in emails. The PNG version is an image great for posting on social media.
Information on upcoming trainings:
Communication Guidelines:
In an effort to help our ambassadors and to be consistent with our La Mesita communications, we have put together the following verbiage for you to share with professionals that you think would be interested and a good fit for our network. Please feel free to modify slightly to fit your communication style and address the audience appropriately — this is simply intended to be a guide.
Email Verbiage
“We’d love to have you join La Mesita network! La Mesita is a growing group of professionals dedicated to meeting the mental health needs of North Carolina’s Latino community. Here, you can connect to people doing similar work, engage in our monthly webinars, apply to be part of one of our Learning Cohorts focused on culturally responsive practices, share and find resources and job postings, and much more — with low registration costs thanks to grant funding. You can use this link (https://la-mesita.mn.co) to join La Mesita. You’ll receive a confirmation email that you can then use to create your account on our online platform. If you want to watch a short tutorial on how to navigate the network, feel free to check it out using this link.
The next La Mesita monthly webinar is on [Insert date/time of next webinar] on [Insert italicized title of next webinar] with [Insert bold speaker and credentials] and you can register using this link [update link to registration link]. Hope you’ll join us!
Finally, you can see the attached flyer for an overview of La Mesita. Feel free to share with others — we appreciate any help spreading the word! Reach out to me with questions any time.”
How do I “notify all” with a Mighty Networks post?
Sometimes you may want to share a resource, training or question with the whole La Mesita network! If you would like to have a post “notify all” members, please go to the network, write your post where it says “Share what’s on your mind…” and after posting you will be given the option to either “notify all” or not.
Instructions to extend an invite:
To invite someone to the network, log into the network with your email address and password. Click the blue + icon on the upper right side of the homepage.
Then click the blue button that says ‘Invite’ at the bottom of the dropdown. You will be taken to a page to insert the person’s email address that looks like this:
The default language on the invite is very informal. Please enter the email address and change it to say the verbiage below then press the blue ‘Send’ button. The person will then receive an email invitation and once they join, we as hosts will have to accept their request. We try to do this multiple times throughout the day to limit any delays.
La Mesita is a growing group of professionals dedicated to meeting the mental health needs of North Carolina’s Latino community. Here, you can connect to people doing similar work, engage in our monthly webinars, apply to be part of one of our Learning Cohorts focused on culturally responsive practices, share and find resources and job postings, and more — with low registration costs thanks to grant funding. You can use the Join button below to get connected to La Mesita. You’ll receive a confirmation email that you can then use to create your account on our online platform.
Alvely Alcántara, LCSW
Rossy C. Garcia, MEd 
Katy Sims, MD 
Everardo Aviles, LCSW, LCAS (Eve)
As a medical anthropologist and social work researcher, Dr. Gulbas’ research embodies interdisciplinarity through the integration of applied theories of health and human development with qualitative and ethnographic methodologies. Her work seeks to understand how people—children, families, and providers—navigate complex sociocultural landscapes in the pursuit of mental health. Most of her work, to date, focuses attention on developing more robust interpretations of suicide risk. With funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health, this body of research has contributed to advancements in theoretical and empirical knowledge of the broader contexts within which youth suicide risk is situated. 
R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez is a developmental psychologist and an assistant professor of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the principal investigator of a study that examines the impact of immigration-related threat and stress on school communities. She earned a PhD in developmental psychology from Columbia University and hold a BA in human biology from Stanford University. Dr. Barajas-Gonzalez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first gen college student.
Dr. Parra-Cardona is an Associate Professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work (SHSSW) at the University of Texas at Austin. At the SHSSW, he serves as Coordinator for Mexico and Latin American initiatives. He also serves as Area Director for Research at the UT Austin Latino Research Institute. Dr. Parra-Cardona’s program of research is focused on the cultural adaptation of evidence-based parenting interventions for low-income Latinx populations in the US and Latin America.
Bianka Reese, PhD, MSPH is a research scientist and program evaluator specializing in adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her previous research in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her work as the Research and Evaluation Manager at SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led largescale evaluations of multilevel, community-based sexual health promotion initiatives and research projects aimed at elevating the voices of diverse youth in North Carolina. Dr. Reese is currently the Senior Research Strategist at Creative Research Solutions, LLC, an award-winning national evaluation, research, and assessment firm.
Tania Connaughton-Espino, MPH is an independent researcher focused on adolescent and young adult sexual and reproductive health. Her interest in the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ+ youth stems from her previous work with SHIFT NC (Sexual Initiatives For Teens), where she led the training and evaluation department, conducted capacity-building workshops for youth serving professionals including on the topic of how to be more affirming of LGBTQ youth, and from her extensive experience working with the Latinx population in NC.
Maru Gonzalez, EdD is an Assistant Professor and Youth Development Specialist in the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences at North Carolina State University. Her areas of inquiry include youth development with a focus on activism, social justice, and the experiences of LGBTQ+ young people across familial, school, and community contexts. 
Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, PhD
Hector Y. Adames, PsyD