Hortensia Amaro

Hortensia Amaro is a Cuban-American educator, and formerly Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University and Associate Vice Provost of Community Research and Dean's Professor of Social Work and Preventative Medicine at the University of Southern California. From a young age, she recognized that there was a demand for public health services in her area, particularly by immigrants and minorities.

The Institute on Urban Health and Practice Amaro is the founder and former director of the IUHP at Northeastern University. Amaro developed the IUHP to serve as a research center where students, faculty, and community members come together to conduct research and cofunction as a health clinic. The IUHP targets issues surrounding health equity and disease prevention among residents of the greater Boston area. Amaro's research contributed significant findings to the prevention of HIV/AIDs in women and minorities. Consequently, Amaro developed and implemented numerous substance-abuse treatment and prevention programs at IUHP including: MOM's Outpatient Treatment Program Entre Familia Residential Treatment Program Moving on to Recovery and Empowerment (M.O.R.E.) "an intensive outpatient treatment program for low-income women of color with co-occurring disorders." Safe and Sound Return- Treatment Model for Incarcerated Women Boston Consortium of Services for Men in Recovery- 'a family-centered system of substance abuse treatment."

Awards 2015: American Public Health Association: Sedwick Memorial Medal for Distinguished Service in Public Health. 2000: Distinguished visiting professor Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel. 1993: American Psychological Association: "Featured Psychologist" and recipient of Distinguished Contributors to Psychology in the Public Interest Early Career Award. 1991: American Psychological Association: (emerging) Women in Psychology Leadership Award. Hispanic Mental Health Professional Association's Rafael Tavares Award for Research