Margarita Alegría
Margarita Alegría, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research and a professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Alegría researches mental health services for Latinos and other ethnic populations. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the Advanced Center for Mental Health Disparities, and the Latino arm of the National Latino and Asian American Study, as well as the Co-Principal Investigator of the CHA-UPR Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training (EXPORT) Center. Her published works focus on mental health services research, conceptual and methodological issues with minority populations, risk behaviors, and disparities in service delivery. Dr. Alegría received her Ph.D. from Temple University.
Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research
Cambridge Health Alliance-Harvard Medical School
Recent and Pending Publications
"Will Behavioral Health Service Disparities Diminish with Expansion of Insurance Coverage and for Whom?" Under Review.
Alegria M, Vallas M and Pumariega AJ. (2010). "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pediatric Mental Health." Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 19(4): 759-774.
Alegria M, Sribney WM, Perez D, Laderman M and Keefe K. (2009). "The Role of Patient Activation on Patient-Provider Communication and Quality of Care for US and Foreign Born Latino Patients." Journal of General Internal Medicine, 24(3): 534-541.
Bates, L., Acevedo-Garcia, D., Alegría, M., & Krieger N. (2008). Immigration and Generational Trends in Body Mass Index and Obesity in the United States: Results of the National Latino and Asian American Study, 2002-2003. American Journal of Public Health, 98(1), 70-77.
Cortés, D., Mulvaney-Day, N., Fortuna, L., Reinfeld, S., & Alegría, M. (2008). Patient/Provider Communication: Understanding the Role of Patient Activation for Latinos in Mental Health Treatment. Health Education & Behavior, EPub.Duan, N., Meng, X-L., Lin, J. Y., Chen, C.-n., & Alegria, M. (2008). Disparities in Defining Disparities: Statistical Conceptual Frameworks. Statistics in Medicine, 27 (20), 3941-3956.
Alegria, M, Chatterji, P, Wells, K, Cao, Z, Chen, C, Takeuchi, D, Jackson, J, & Meng, X-L. (2008). Disparity in Access to and Quality of Depression Treatment among Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the U.S. Psychiatric Services, 59 (11) 1264-1272.
Alegría, M., Nakash, O., Lapatin, S., Oddo, V., Gao, S., Lin, J., Normand, S.L. (2008). How Missing Information in Diagnosis Can Lead to Disparities in the Clinical Encounter. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. November(Suppl): S26-S35.
Nakash, O., Dargouth, S., Oddo, V., Gao, S., Alegría, M. (2009). Patient Initiation of Information: Exploration of its Role during the Mental-Health Intake. Patient Education and Counseling, 75(2), 220-226.