Dr. Felipa Chavez is an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Florida Institute of Technology. She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology, with a concentration in working with children and families from the University at Buffalo (UB). She is a former NIAAA post-doctoral fellow at UB’s Research Institute on Addictions, where she trained in research examining early child development and parent-child relationships in heavy drinking alcohol families which resulted in her receiving the 2002 Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) Junior Investigator’s Award. She has also been a pediatric liaison for the University at Buffalo (UB)Roswell Park Cancer Institute where she engaged in research on the late effects outcomes of pediatric cancer survivors. Dr. Chavez was the Director of Building Blocks: PCIT at Florida Tech, which disseminated Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) to local families through the Community Psychological Services (CPS) center, which operates out of Florida Tech’s Scott Center for Autism. Currently, she conducts a program of research providing Teacher Child Interaction Therapy (TCIT) services to at-risk underserved community classrooms (including schools, daycares, and community centers) through her Project Play research program, which has been partially funded by the Fight Against Community Violence Target grant. Through her community-based outreach initiatives research, Dr. Chavez examines how improvements in disruptive classroom behaviors, through the implementation of TCIT, can improve classroom manageability, student academic performance, and teacher stress, with rippling effects for reduced child abuse potential in the home. As a within agency trainer, Dr. Chavez has trained over 60 clinical psychology graduate students in the dissemination of PCIT treatment services, several of whom have gone on to become certified PCIT therapist themselves, and she is currently working towards becoming a regional level trainer. Dr. Chavez along with her colleagues at University of Iowa and the University of Arkansas, in tandem with the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health an Intellectual disability services (DBHIDS), received a grant from the Philadelphia Eagles Football Team Autism Foundation for the PCIT training of Black and Latine clinicians who work with Black and Latine children on the Autism Spectrum. Dr. Chavez was also the multicultural consultant for PCIT International Association’s (PCIT-IA) Florida Department of Children and Family (DCF) Services contract for the dissemination of subsidized training for mental health professionals to become certified PCIT therapists and Within Agency Trainers (WATer). Additionally, in collaboration with her University of West Virginia colleagues, Dr. Chavez has undertaken some qualitative research that has informed the factor analytic structure of a newly created abridged version of the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) for Toddlers. Currently, with her Georgetown Colleagues, Dr. Chavez is conducting research examining the experiences of PCIT with Black clinicians and Black clients, to inform a newly adapted version of PCIT for serving Black families. Dr. Chavez has close to 20-years of experience in teaching multicultural graduate course curriculum, and based on her years of experience in the delivery of both PCIT and TCIT services to underserved communities, she has developed a tips sheet offering clinical/training guidelines for the practical applications of PCIT principles in working with Black families in treatment, in support of the Black Lives Matter social, which has been widely used and referenced in the PCIT International Association Community (PCIT-IA). It is entitled: “We are Light that Overcomes Darkness as we strive to be our Brother’s Keeper”: PCIT Applications for supporting Black Families in Treatment. Other noteworthy accomplishments include her NPR academic minute on children and anxiety (https://academicminute.org/2020/05/felipa-chavez-florida-institute-of-technologyanxiety-in-children/) and a two-part series on how to address issues of the COVID-19 pandemic with children (https://news.fit.edu/academics-research/how-do-i-explain-this-pandemic-to-my-child-part-one/ ; https://news.fit.edu/academics-research/how-do-i-explain-this-pandemic-to-my-child-part-two/). All of which have culminated in 45- international and national conference presentations, 9-Guest lectures some of which included Harvard Judge Baker Children’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins Kennedy Krieger Medical Center, 4-book chapters, 1-Book, 9-articles, 3-grants, and 2-clinical treatment contracts.