Monthly Webinars
“Supporting Clients Through Times of Change: A Conversation with Kaci Bishop from UNC School of Law “
March 14th, 2025 from 12:00-1:30 PM ET
Presented by Kaci Bishop, JD
All of our monthly webinars on Latine mental health are free!
Webinar Description:
The new federal administration has brought changes impacting mental health care and how professionals attend to the ongoing needs of their clients. These changes have also impacted certain groups, including many Latine communities, and providers are seeing an increase in demand for services. In this timely conversation, Kaci Bishop, J.D., will discuss best practices for mental health clinicians to consider in order to support their client’s rights and privileges as patients, within the context of a changing health care landscape. Kaci’s presentation will be followed by a brief Q&A.
*Please note that we are NOT able to provide continuing education for this month’s webinar.
Meet Our March Presenter:
Kaci Bishop, JD, joined the Carolina Law faculty in 2012 and serves as the Martha Brandis Term Professor of Law and the Associate Dean for Experiential Education. She also directs and teaches the Immigration Clinic, which assists those who have fled persecution in their home countries and those who are survivors of domestic or sexual violence, human trafficking, or other crimes. Bishop has previously taught Writing for the Bar and Research, Reasoning, Writing, and Advocacy. She has also assisted with the school’s academic success programs, including the Legal Education Advancement Program (LEAP), and co-developed and piloted the Transition to the Profession course for incoming first-year students. In 2024, she received the Faculty Member of the Year Pro Bono Publico Award. Her scholarly interests include experiential and legal pedagogy, academic excellence, and humanitarian immigration law.
Bishop earned her J.D. with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where, during her 3L year, she served as the Director of the Pro Bono Board and was inducted into the James E. and Carolyn B. Davis Society in recognition of her personal and academic excellence. Following law school, Bishop clerked for the Honorable Linda McGee at the North Carolina Court of Appeals before becoming a staff attorney with the Immigrants Legal Assistance Project with the North Carolina Justice Center. Bishop is licensed to practice in North Carolina, the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, and in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. She has completed the Haven, Safe Zone, UndocuCarolina, and Mental Health First Aid trainings. She also was selected into the Carolina Dialogue Across Difference Program in 2022-23 and the Women ADVANCE Leadership program in 2023-24. She is conversant in French and Spanish.
Ready to Register?
Click the button below and we’ll see you on March 14th!
*Please note that we are NOT able to offer continuing education for this month’s webinar.*
Save the Dates for Our Upcoming Webinars:
Programming for 2025 will be available soon!
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.
Participants should confirm continuing education credit information for licensure requirements with their state licensing board(s). If you need any additional information about this webinar 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