Monthly Webinars
“Small Changes, Big Impact: Ways to Empower your Practice with Lifestyle Medicine & Strategies for Engaging Latino Clients “
April 11th, 2025 from 12:00-1:30 PM ET
Presented by David (Luke) Smith, MD & Andres Fuenmayor, MD
All of our monthly webinars on Latine mental health are free!
Webinar Description:
Mental health clinicians are increasingly recognizing the power of Lifestyle Medicine in supporting emotional well-being. This presentation will explore evidence-based lifestyle interventions—such as nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and social connection—that can enhance mental health outcomes. Special attention will be given to culturally relevant strategies for engaging Latino clients and families in sustainable behavioral changes. Participants will gain practical tools to integrate Lifestyle Medicine into their practice and empower clients to take an active role in their mental health.
*This webinar is eligible for 1.5 NBCC and 1.5 APA continuing education (CE) credits. Please see below for more information.
Meet Our April Presenters:
Luke Smith, MD, is a psychiatrist and the Executive Director of El Futuro in Durham, NC. He was raised in Arkansas and moved to North Carolina for training in child and adult psychiatry. After volunteering in the community and perceiving a great need for Spanish language services, Dr. Smith mobilized the community to create El Futuro. He is the Executive Director and Medical Director and provides psychiatric care to both children and adults. Each year, he and his staff provide services to 1,500 – 1,700 children and families who come for help. He is double board certified in both adult psychiatry and in child and adolescent psychiatry. In addition to being active with direct services and shaping policy at the local and state level, Dr. Smith leads the organization in research efforts through projects funded by the NIMH and PCORI with a focus on creating evidence-based practices that are especially targeted to help the North Carolina Latino Community.
Andres Fuenmayor, MD, is a medical doctor training in psychiatry at Duke University. He completed his medical education at the Central University of Venezuela, graduating with honors in research. During this time, he focused on working with underserved communities, including indigenous populations in the Amazon Basin, and was the founder and director of a nonprofit organization that provided free medical care to these communities.
Afterward, he spent three years at Columbia University in the Department of Global Mental Health, contributing to research focused on implementing evidence-based interventions addressing social determinants of health in underserved populations in Mozambique, Brazil, and New York City.
At Duke, Dr. Fuenmayor has worked extensively with the Latino/Hispanic community, providing psychiatric services at El Futuro and leading initiatives to increase access to mental health care for migrant farmworkers through a collaboration with the NC Farmworkers Project and UNC.
He is a Diversity Leadership Fellow with the APA Foundation and a Pearsall Fellow at the North Carolina Psychoanalytic Institute.
Ready to Register?
Click the button below and we’ll see you on April 11th!
*Please see below for both NBCC and APA continuing education (CE) details.*
Save the Dates for Our Upcoming Webinars:
Friday, April 11th: Small Changes, Big Impact: Ways to Empower your Practice with Lifestyle Medicine & Strategies for Engaging Latino Clients Register Here
Friday, May 9th: Screening for Depression in Latine Communities: Clinical & Cultural Considerations to Depression Identification & Treatment Register Here
Friday, June 13th: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Latine Children – Registration will open soon!
Friday, July 11th: Strengthening Latine Families with Harm Reduction Register Here
Friday, August 8th: Internal and External Dislocation in Refugees and Asylum Seekers – Clinical Recommendations Register Here
Looking for Past Webinar Recordings?
We’ve got you covered! In 2024, we developed a resource website that is home to all La Mesita resources and webinar recordings. We add more every month, so be sure to check back regularly for new information, programming, and resources.
Please note: we cannot provide CEs for webinar recordings at this time.
Continuing Education
El Futuro has been approved by NBCC for NBCC credit. Sessions approved for NBCC credit are clearly identified. El Futuro is solely responsible for all aspects of the program. NBCC Approval No. 6947.
For participants that register for continuing education, this webinar will provide 1.5 NBCC Hours.
El Futuro is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. El Futuro maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Sessions approved for APA credit are clearly identified. Our April 11th webinar is eligible for 1.5 CE credits.
Participants should confirm continuing education credit information for licensure requirements with their state licensing board(s). If you need any additional information about a program for your licensure, please reach out to us at lamesita@elfuturo-nc.org.
Cancellation Policy
In the event of a cancellation, we will provide notification as soon as possible so participants can adjust their schedule accordingly. Participants who need to cancel may choose to do so at any time but will not receive a Certificate of Completion.
Accommodations
Please contact lamesita@elfuturo-nc.org to let us know if you need accommodations at least 1 week before an event. We will work to the best of our abilities to fulfill all accommodation requests.
Concern Response and 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