Lening Olivera-Figueroa, PsyD, ABPP has been selected by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) Foundation as the recipient of its Diversity Scholarship Award. Olivera-Figueroa is a lecturer in psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a fellow in the NIMH Research Fellowship in Functional Disability Interventions based at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System.
The award recognizes new specialists from an underrepresented multicultural group whose accomplishments and credentials show promise for their future role as leaders in their field of specialization.
The award was presented to Olivera-Figueroa at a reception in August during the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
Olivera-Figueroa's research interests include the predictability of time perspective tendencies on the acculturative stress of immigrants living in the Unites States; the role of time perspective on the severity of diverse mental illnesses among immigrant populations, veterans, and active duty military personnel; and the efficacy of a novel cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approach known as Time Perspective Therapy (TBT) as a treatment for posttraumatic stress, depression, and alcohol use disorders across immigrant groups, veterans, and active duty military personnel.
Olivera-Figueroa received his PsyD in clinical psychology at the Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico. Prior to his appointment at Yale, he worked as a post-doctoral intern at the Emotional Health CBT Clinic of McGill University.