Steven R. Lopez, Ph.D.
I am a professor of psychology at USC. I was born in Tucson, Arizona where my family has lived since 1830. In 1971 I began my undergraduate studies at Claremont McKenna College where culture and ethnicity were my major interests. After graduating in 1975 with a BA in psychology I returned to Tucson to work as a Rural Community Mental Health Worker at La Frontera Community Mental Health Center.
Two years later I entered the doctoral program in clinical psychology at UCLA where I furthered my interests in improving services for Latinos. Following my graduate education, I have been a professor of psychology at USC for 18 years and at UCLA for 16 years.
I have several lines of research that focus on culture, serious mental illness, families, and intervention. The primary focus of our current research is to reduce the duration of untreated psychosis among Latinos with their first episode of a psychotic disorder.
With the support of the NIMH, we are carrying out a communication campaign in the San Fernando Valley to teach people to recognize psychosis in others and we are evaluating whether treatment delay is decreasing.
I also direct a summer research training program in Mexico to address disparities in mental health care for Latinos in which students work with Mexican investigators. The program has been funded by NIH for 13 years. I am currently the Director of Clinical Training of USC’s clinical psychology program. I am most proud of my family. I have been married 40 years, have 4 daughters ages 28 to 39, and four grandsons.
Steven Lopez, Ph.D.
E-mail: lopezs@usc.edu
