The Deadline for the 2024-2025 Josie Torralba Romero Scholarship application has passed. NLBHA will notify Scholarship recipients soon.
November 4, 2014, marked the tenth anniversary of the passing of Josie Romero, first President of the National Latino Behavioral Health Association (NLBHA). One of Josie’s greatest dreams was to see NLBHA established and flourishing. A major player in the formation of NLBHA, Josie’s work and involvement was crucial to the progress NLBHA has made since it was established in 2000. NLBHA celebrated its fourteenth anniversary on September 20, 2014.
Though Josie’s contributions to NLBHA were numerous, one of her favorite projects was the Mental Health Interpreter Training (MHIT). She had spent years providing culturally and linguistically competent mental health services to underserved populations, where she saw firsthand the disparities in quality of care due to the lack of a culturally and linguistically competent workforce. With the support and input from a national group of experts, Josie and a colleague, Dr. Evelyn Lee (NAAPIMHA), authored a training curriculum that would shape and develop the skills and competencies appropriate for agency staff interpreters and service providers working with culturally diverse populations. The project was nearing completion when both leaders died within two years of each other. The MHIT was subsequently completed by NLBHA and NAAPIMHA and training events are currently being delivered in mental health agencies around the country.
Josie had enormous dedication and love for our Latino community and through her work, helped improve the services of the country’s mental health, social service and child welfare. She has been praised as one of the early pioneers of social work education in San Jose and as a staunch supporter and advocate for preparing culturally competent social work students to work effectively in communities of color.
Your support and contributions to the Josie Torralba Romero Scholarship Fund will help us continue to pay tribute to Josie Romero’s legacy of “growing our own” by providing academic scholarships to Latino students who are preparing to work in the field of mental health. Please make a tax deductible contribution in honor of the work of Josie Romero to help young Latinos and Latinas pursue, earn and complete college degrees in behavioral health.
