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Dr. Joanna L. Barreras is an Associate Professor (with early tenure) in the School of Social Work at California State University, °µÍøÊÓƵ (CSULB). Her scholarship and leadership ignite social change, promote community health, and cultivate the next generation of leaders. A first-generation Mexican American raised in East Los Angeles, and the first in her family to attend college, she credits mentorship and her family’s love as the foundation of her academic and professional journey. She is bilingual in Spanish, which enriches her research and community service. She also serves as Associate Director of Research and Evaluation at Bienestar Human Services, one of Los Angeles County’s largest organizations serving Latinx LGBTQ+ communities.

Her research advances health and mental health equity through community-driven and culturally grounded approaches. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the NIH-funded Centers for AIDS Research (CFARs) Adelante Program, the California HIV/AIDS Research Program (CHRP), and faculty research awards. As Co-Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Siempre Seguiré intervention with RAND and Bienestar, she helped develop and evaluate a CBT-based intervention to strengthen coping, HIV testing, and PrEP uptake among Latino sexual minority men. As Principal Investigator of the CFAR-funded Cultivando project, she led the development and pilot testing of a culturally responsive CBT-based intervention with Latina transgender women to improve HIV outcomes and address intersectional stigma. She is currently Co-Principal Investigator on a CHRP study with UCLA and RAND that refines measures of medical mistrust and coping in racialized populations. Alongside her externally funded collaborations, she leads faculty-funded projects on digital storytelling for belonging and on building pathways into doctoral education for formerly incarcerated scholars, and has also advanced trust-building initiatives with transgender women and public institutions.

Dr. Barreras is a dedicated educator who brings an interdisciplinary perspective shaped by her teaching and research in both social work and public health. She mentors Master of Social Work (MSW) students as they design and carry out applied projects in partnership with community organizations, work that reflects her own commitment to community-based participatory research. She also supports students through programs such as Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD), the McNair Scholars Program, and the Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP), cultivating pathways into research, doctoral study, and academia. She has also served her community as a Montebello City Commissioner and as a candidate for the Montebello School Board of Education. Across these roles, she unites scholarship, mentorship, and community leadership to advance equity, institutional transformation, and social change.