Azara Santiago-Rivera, PhD
Interim Dean of the Graduate School of Counseling
Dr. Santiago Rivera, PhD, NCC, is Professor Emerita and formally the Founding Director of the Clinical Mental Health Program at Merrimack College, North Andover, MA. She also served in the role of Founding Chair of the Department of Counseling, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (TCSPP), Washington, DC campus. She has experience building CACREP aligned programs. In addition, she was a faculty member at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI and the University at Albany, NY.
Dr. Santiago Rivera served as the Dean of Academic Affairs at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. While serving in this capacity on the Washington, DC, campus, she collaborated with institution’s leadership to build an infrastructure that supports academic programs and student services. This effort included hiring a diverse faculty and staff and developing recruitment activities and retention strategies. In her role as Dean of Academic Affairs on the Chicago campus, major accomplishments included creating partnerships with area universities to potentially serve as pipelines to the graduate programs and creating initiatives to advance early career faculty with a focus on publishing, teaching strategies, and tenure and promotion processes.
Dr. Santiago Rivera’ professional and leadership positions in professional organizations include President of the National Latinx Psychological Association, President of the Latino Mental Health Association of New Jersey, and President of Counselors for Social Justice, a division of the American Counseling Association. She is the Founding Editor of the Journal of Latinx Psychology and is a Fellow of Divisions 45 and 17 of the American Psychological Association (APA). In 2014 Dr. Santiago-Rivera received the APA Presidential Citation for outstanding contribution to the profession. She is currently the immediate past-chair of AAHHE. Her doctorate degree is in Counseling from Wayne State University, Detroit MI.
Her publications and research interests include multicultural competencies in the counseling profession, bilingual therapy, Latinx adults and depression, and the impact of environmental contamination on the biopsychosocial well-being of Native Americans. She is a coauthor of 3 books, over 50 peer reviewed articles and book chapters, and has given over 130 presentations/workshops at local, national and international conferences, universities, and organizations. Fun facts: She enjoys downhill skiing, playing golf, and playing the African Ashiko drum.
