Editorial Board

  • Editor-in-Chief: Mae Lynn Reyes-Rodríguez, PhD, FAED, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, United States of America  

Mae Lynn Reyes-Rodríguez, PhD, FAED (Editor-in-Chief) is clinical full professor at the Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders (CEED) in the Psychiatry Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has dual specialization, in Academic and Research and Clinical Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. She is fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) and Expert of Content for the National Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders (NCEED). Currently, she is co-Investigator and Cultural Competence Lead for the clinical trial “Scaling up Psychological Treatments for Perinatal Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms via Telemedicine,” subvencionado por Pragmatic Clinical Study (PCS) by the Patient Centered Organization Research Institute (PCORI). As a researcher and clinical psychologist, she has devoted her clinical research career to adapt eating disorders treatments for the Latino population in Puerto Rico during her early career and later with Latinos in the mainland, particularly in Central North Carolina. She has published numerous papers and book chapters on cultural adaptation. She is actively involved in the Latino community as a columnist in one of the main Latino Newspapers in NC, La Noticia in which she provides psychoeducation on mental health in order to raise the awareness and reduce the health disparities.

  • Associate Editor: Mariluz Franco Ortiz, PhD, Instituto de Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias, Universidad de Puerto Rico Cayey, Puerto Rico

Mariluz Franco-Ortiz, PhD (Associate Editor) is a community-social psychologist with experience in projects related to education, psychosocial research, racism, research integrity, and youth violence prevention. These qualities have nourished her experience in group and community interventions in formal as well as informal educational settings. Dr. Franco-Ortiz has 25+ years of experience implementing best training practices in student and faculty development programs such as the Career Opportunities in Research and Training Program for Undergraduate Students (COR-NIH), Center for Hispanic Youth Violence Prevention (CDC), and currently, UPR Innovative Program to Enhance Research Training (UPR IPERT, NIH) at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research at UPR Cayey. She has also led community-based projects promoting gender, racial, and social justice through her enthusiastic commitment with Colectivo ilé. Being a researcher herself on gender and racial inequality, she can attune professional development strategies to the working conditions of Puerto Rican researchers as well as community organizing process. Also, she has collaborated in a project disseminating a training guide for elementary school teachers, focusing on an anti-racist pedagogy of African heritage titled: Pulling up myths from the root: guide for an anti-racist pedagody of the African heritage in Puerto Rico at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, UPR Cayey.  She’s a proud mother of two wonderful human beings.

  • Associate Editor: Marco Peña Jimenez, PhD, Laboratoire Parisien de Psychologie Sociale EA4386, University Paris Nanterre, France  

Marco Peña Jimenez, PhD (Associate Editor) is an Associate Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology in the Department of Psychology and Researcher at the EA4386 Parisian Laboratory of Social Psychology at Paris Nanterre University in France. His lines of research examine the psychosocial impact of new technologies at work and organizations, transformation and innovation in the organizational context, team dynamics and processes, and data measurement and analysis in psychology. Likewise, he has collaborated in research projects as an organizational consultant for a company in the aerospace sector with a presence in Europe and the United States. At the editorial management level, he has more than 10 years of experience in different roles (design, development, management, review, publication and indexing) for various scientific journals in psychology in Latin America and Europe.

  • Associate Editor: Emily Sáez-Santiago, PhD, Instituto de Investigación Psicológica, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, Puerto Rico
     

Emily Sáez Santiago, PhD. (Associate Editor) is a clinical psychologist and assistant researcher at the Psychological Research Institute (IPsi) of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. Her research work revolves around the influence of the family environment in adolescents, treatment and prevention of depression, cultural adaptation of psychological interventions, juvenile diabetes, obesity and treatment focused on trauma for childhood and adolescence. She has received several grants to conduct research and service projects which she has presented in various academic and professional forums both nationally and internationally. She has articles published in peer-reviewed journals and in book chapters and co-editor of the book Families in Puerto Rico: Contexts, challenges and alternatives for practice. In addition, she is the co-author of the intervention manuals for the prevention of depression in adolescents, the treatment of depression in adolescents with diabetes, and psychological education for parents of adolescents with depression, all based on cognitive-behavioral theory. Currently, at IPsi she directs the Child and Adolescent Support Project-II, which is part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network of the United States and has the objective of providing cognitive behavioral therapy focused on trauma to minors in Puerto Rico. Dr. Sáez Santiago also offers methodology courses in psychological research at UPR-RP.

  • Associate Editor: Irma Serrano-García, PhD, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, Puerto Rico
     

Irma Serrano-García, PhD. (Associate Editor) is a Retired Professor of the Department of Psychology at the University of Puerto Rico. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 18 books. She was the first female editor of the Interamerican Journal of Psychology. She has presented her work at professional activities in North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia and Europe. During her career, she has participated in the governing bodies of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Inter-American Society of Psychology (SIP), and the Puerto Rico Psychological Association (APPR). She was awarded the APPR Psychologist of the Year and Lifetime Achievement awards, the SIP Inter-American Psychologist Award, the APA Distinguished Contributions to Teaching and Training in Psychology award, and the APA Distinguished Contributions to Community Psychology of the Society for Community Research and Action. Her topics of interest include participatory research, public policy, program evaluation, and university teaching.

  • Editorial Assistance: Mariely Vélez Pérez, MS, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, Puerto Rico 

Mariely Vélez Pérez, MS (Editorial Assistance) is a doctoral student in the School Psychology program at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus. She completed her Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Psychology at the Mayagüez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. Later, she completed her Master of Science with a concentration in Counseling Psychology at the Carlos Albizu University in Mayagüez. Her research interests include working with vulnerable populations, adaptation of psychometric tests, bibliotherapy, and working with the Deaf population in Puerto Rico.

 

  • Editorial Assistance: BA. Jorge L. Rivera Carrasquillo, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, Puerto Rico 

Jorge L. Rivera Carrasquillo, BA (Editorial Assistant) is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. He completed his Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Psychology and Community Mental Health at the University of Puerto Rico in Cayey. His research interests include the psychological effects of stress, the relationship between schizophrenia and working memory, and the only child population.

 

Publishing policy by editorial staff in the reps

The purpose of the Puerto Rican Journal of Psychology (reps, by the acronyms in Spanish) represented by its editorial board, is to ensure the review and publication processes are handled with transparency, particularly by the people who play an active role on the editorial board. Those people acting in the role of associate editor may submit articles to be considered for publication in the reps. Double-blind processes will be guaranteed in the following ways:

  • a) The person in the role of Editor-in-Chief will be in charge of the editorial function of the article.
  • b) With the updated Open Journal System (OJS) platform, there is limited access to the articles on the platform. People in associated editorial roles only have access to the articles and the editorial process of those that they have under their editorial functions. This process guarantees that they cannot have access to the names of the reviewers or to any other communication between the reviewers and the person in charge of the general editing functions regarding the article of their authorship.

The person acting as Editor-in-Chief, as a standard practice, will limit their participation in authorship processes. In special circumstances in which, due to their expertise on particular issues, their contribution is meritorious, the Editor-in-Chief may submit an article, following the following practices to ensure double blind processes:

  • a) The OJS system has limited access for those in active authorship role. The Editor-in-Chief may submit the article on the platform as long the person use the “author role” for the article in order to activate the double blind of the OJS.
  • b) A person in the associate editorial role, either within the reps editorial board or within an international invited editorial board, will assume the article-editing role as Editor in Section. The person in the role of editorial assistant of the reps, will be assisting and guiding the editorial processes together with the associate editor to keep a record of the editorial work that in order to guarantee the purity and transparence of the editorial process.