Yovanska Duarte-Velez, PhD

Yovanska Duarte-Velez, PhD, is a child and family psychologist and an assistant professor (research) in the department of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She is an experienced cognitive-behavioral therapist and trainer, and a specialist in suicide risk assessment and intervention. She has particular expertise in treating high-risk Latinx youth and adults.

Dr. Duarte-Velez earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at the Rio Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico and completed a training grant, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, at Brown University. The focus of the grant was developing a psychosocial treatment for Latinx youth at risk for suicide.

She has participated in several fellowships, including the 11th annual Summer Institute on the Design and Conduct of Randomized Clinical Trials Involving Behavioral Interventions in Warrenton, Virginia, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Translational Health Disparities Course in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Duarte-Velez’s research interests are focused on developing and tailoring treatments for minoritized populations according to their needs and cultural values, and incorporating health disparity studies into her research.

Her research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, and she has been an investigator in numerous federally funded research studies.

Dr. Duarte-Velez is a member of the American Psychological Association, the American Association of Suicidology, and the National Latinx Psychological Association, and a board member of Progreso Latino, a social services agency in Central Falls that serves Rhode Island’s Latino and immigrant communities.