La Mesita Latine Mental
Health Professional Network
What is La Mesita?
Check out a video overview of our La Mesita programming!
In El Futuro’s years of experience providing community-based mental health services to Latine families in Central North Carolina, a few things have become clear to us: The needs of the Latine community are not unique to the Triangle, and there is a wider community of providers across NC and beyond who need support in doing this difficult and important work.
That’s why we’ve built a network to connect folks providing community-based services to Latine clients across North Carolina, and beyond. We named the network “La Mesita”, with the idea that we want everyone to pull up a chair around our little table to talk, share and learn together.
Along with connecting providers across NC, we are invested in building our communities’ capacities to provide the latest proven and research-driven services to the Latine community. We work towards that goal by providing low-cost and often free continuing education and professional development programming to help providers throughout North Carolina and beyond to best serve our Latine community.
Please join us around our little table!
Click on the images below
to read more about La Mesita’s training and education programs!
Who is in our network?
Our growing network of more than 1600 professionals serving the Latine community across North Carolina and beyond has representation from medical and behavioral health providers, social workers, students, lawyers, teachers and professors, project managers and more. Through our training programs and outreach, we hope to continue growing our reach!
Upcoming La Mesita Programming:
Why ‘Latine?’
‘Latine’ is a term that acknowledges the gender binary inherent in the Spanish language and attempts to be inclusive of the entirety of the gender spectrum. As a result of our targeted audience for our teaching and learning services, El Futuro has decided to use the term ‘Latine’ in La Mesita programming. However, we continue to use the terms ‘Latino/Latina/Latinx’ in our clinical work. We hold no expectation of other organizations or individuals to make similar linguistic decisions.
La Mesita programming aims to improve the mental health of Latine families across North Carolina. At El Futuro, 70% of our clients qualify as victims of crime according to the Governor’s Crime Commission definition. Because we expect other providers may see similar numbers in the Latine community throughout the state, we seek to build capacity to serve victims of crime, as well as all Latine families, through our diverse training offerings.
Grievance Policy
We have carefully modeled the environment around our learning activities to be one characterized by mutual collegiality, kindness, and a commitment to constant learning. This environment allows for providers of all disciplines, regardless of their level of experience, to feel comfortable in taking part in and benefiting from our programming. It is our hope that all La Mesita members will join us in preserving this environment we have cultivated over the years through your participation across our programming.
You can request our full grievance policy or submit a concern by reaching out to us at lamesita@elfuturo-nc.org.
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