Margarita Alegría, Ph.D.
(Chair)

Margarita Alegría is director of the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research (CMMHR) at Cambridge Health Alliance. She oversees an interdisciplinary group of professionals that assist in the research, analysis, and administration of the Center projects. She is the principal investigator of two NIMH-funded research studies based at the Center: the Latino Research Program Project (LRPP), which focuses on research to improve the mental health care of Latino populations, and the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS, Takeuchi and Alegría, PIs), a large epidemiologic national study.

Dr. Alegría worked for 22 years at the University of Puerto Rico, most recently as director of the Center for Evaluation and Sociomedical Research (CESR) and as a professor. She was awarded the 2003 Mental Health Section Award at the 131st Meeting of the American Public Health Association.

Dr. Alegría has devoted her professional career to researching disparities in mental health and substance abuse services for Latinos and other minority populations. Her published work focuses on defining and proposing solutions to disparities in mental health care services in minority populations, specifically Latinos in Puerto Rico and the United States; conceptual and methodological issues with minority populations; risk behaviors; and disparities in service delivery. Dr. Alegría serves on the board of directors for the Children’s Foundation and the Felisa Rincón De Gautier Foundation.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University, a master’s degree from the University of Puerto Rico, and a Ph.D. from Temple University, all in psychology.