Internships and Residencies
El Futuro offers a highly sought after training program that attracts students from many local professional schools and training programs. We attract medical students, resident physicians, psychology interns, masters level social work students, divinity students, and other professional students to come to El Futuro for a one-of-a-kind training experience.
El Futuro offers residencies, internships, field work, and practicum opportunities to provide students from a wide variety of educational disciplines the opportunity to apply traditional academic classroom learning to actual clinical experiences in a multi-program setting.
We offer internships and residencies in our Durham clinic, with limited opportunities at our Siler City clinic location.
Graduate level clinical internships
The Clinical Learners program for social work, marriage and family therapy, counseling psychology, and counseling students is a valued part of our clinical program at El Futuro. Our interns and practicum students learn how to provide trauma-informed, culturally-relevant psychotherapy in a challenging and supportive environment. El Futuro has hosted clinical interns and practicum students from graduate programs of social work, counseling, marriage and family therapy, and counseling psychology. Interns receive weekly individual supervision from a qualified supervisor at El Futuro, and are also encouraged to participate in monthly group and specialized supervision. For more information and to express your interest, please email: learners@elfuturo-nc.org.
Residencies
We are fortunate to partner with the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers (NC AHEC) to provide this unique training experience for medical students and resident physicians. El Futuro is an AHEC Center of Excellence.
Testimonials
I just wanted to thank all of you for making my year at El Futuro a great one. Not only did I learn a lot from being there social work-wise, but I could not have asked for a better group of people with whom to work. Each of you is extremely talented, caring, and good at what you do. Thanks for “showing me the ropes” and making my field placement a really positive experience!
I can’t tell you how invaluable your guidance has been lately. I’m currently in an Ob-Gyn clinic every Wednesday and more than half of my patients speak Spanish only. I have a hard time expressing succinctly how much the entire staff at El Futuro has helped me learn how to approach patients in a respectful and helpful way. You guys literally made me a better psychiatrist…and I was happy to be along for the ride.
Why is El Futuro a good place for your internship?
Sarah Montross ’23, Health Policy and Management at UNC-Chapel Hill, aspires to be a social worker. She spent summer 2023 as an SECU Public Fellow intern at UNC-Chapel Hill with us at our Durham clinic. Learn more about what drives her to do this work. (Video made by Carolina Center for Public Service)
Gisselle Castro
Conexiones Intern
She was born and raised in Durham, NC and went to Durham Public Schools from elementary to high school. Her parents are from Honduras and El Salvador so being surrounded by a Latinx community is so important to her. Currently, an undergraduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill majoring in psychology planning to get a higher degree in a branch of psychology to help give back to the community. She is a member of the organization at UNC-Chapel Hill called Mi Pueblo which brings awareness to Latinx issues, creates a support and sense of community to all students especially Latinx. She came to El Futuro to expand her passion for psychology and help those in her community through positive aspects. She enjoys hanging out with friends and family, going on trips, hanging out with her dog, and trying new things.
Brooke Becker, MD
Psychiatry resident
Brooke grew up in Birmingham, AL, a really lovely city with plenty of fried food and humid weather. After finishing college at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN, she moved back to Birmingham for medical school at UAB School of Medicine. She is currently in psychiatry residency at UNC. Learning Spanish has been one of the greatest joys in her life so far – whether through the classroom, studying abroad, working as a medical interpreter, or spending time with gracious friends & coworkers who are native Spanish speakers. Finding a residency program that offered opportunities to train intentionally in Spanish was a true blessing, and she is really grateful to be a part of El Futuro this year. Outside of work, she enjoys being outside, spending time with her family and dog, cooking and eating good food, and books in all forms!
Jonathan Nahmias
Psychiatry resident
He is a Duke psychiatry resident excited to learn from the patients and staff at El Futuro. He is originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and learned Spanish later in life while living in Colima, Mexico. After a year’s stay, he returned to the United States where worked as a Spanish interpreter until starting Medical School. As he spent more time with the Latinos and other immigrants, he developed great admiration for them. They made him want to meet more people, understand them on a deeper level, and connect with them. It ultimately made him seek a career in psychiatry. He specially requested to train at El Futuro to spend time with Latinos, who he has come to deeply respect.
Maria Santos, M.D.
Family Medicine PGY-3
Maria was born in Bogota, Colombia and moved to Atlanta, GA when she was 8. She received her Bachelors in Biochemistry from Berry College in Rome, GA and completed medical school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. She is now a third year resident doctor at Duke Family Medicine. She has worked with the Latinx community throughout her training and has had a special interest in mental health and primary care. She came to El Futuro to continue her work with the Latinx community and support advancing Latinx treatment and support. She enjoys camping, going to concerts, and trying new restaurants in the area.
Sarah Montross
SECU Public Fellows Intern
Sarah Montross is a 23-year-old senior at UNC-Chapel Hill studying Health Policy and Management at the Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is from Chapel Hill, but lived in Ecuador for a year before college, where she learned Spanish while living with a host family and working at a local preschool. Sarah currently serves as a bilingual volunteer for Crisis Text Line, responding to texts from people in crisis and helping them move from a hot moment to one of cool calm. She came to El Futuro to foster her passion for fighting healthcare inequities in underserved communities and support the organization’s mission. In the future, she hopes to earn a Masters Degree in Social Work to pursue her passion. Sarah enjoys spending time outdoors, reading, creating pottery, and playing with her cat. A great book I have read recently is Kindness Will Save the World: Stories of Compassion and Connection by James Crews. “A song I really like is Coastline by Hollow Coves.”
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