Dr. Arabella Perez - Mental Health Educator

Dr. Perez is a licensed clinical social worker and therapist of 30 years and holds a Master's and a Doctorate Degree in Social Work from Tulane University in New Orleans. She is a native Spanish speaker and the daughter of parents from Cuba and Puerto Rico. Dr. Perez is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of New England (UNE), where she directs the trauma-informed certificate program for the College of Health Professions. She is also the 2022-2023 UNE teaching scholar on justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom. Before joining UNE, Dr. Perez was a system of care director from 2005 to 2015, leading three Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grants for the state of Maine. During this time, she founded THRIVE, a nonprofit technical assistance center whose mission was to provide education to organizations seeking to become trauma-informed. In addition to teaching, Dr. Perez provides technical assistance and consultation to states and communities on developing trauma-informed systems and provides system of care consultation through federal site monitoring and coaching for SAMHSA. She is a certified cultural competency trainer and presents and provides consultation extensively, both locally and nationally, on Trauma Systems Change, Professional Caregiver Stress and Resiliency, Organizational Healing and Resiliency, Cultural and Linguistic Competency issues, and Leadership Coaching. She is a Hanley Leadership Development program graduate, a board member of the Maine NASW chapter, Sea Change Yoga and Social Current (formerly known as the Council on Accreditation), and was awarded the Maine NASW Agency of the Year award in 2012.