Community Development Graduate Group

Born in Colon, Panama, and raised in San Jose, Costa Rica, Dr. Flores migrated to the United States in 1965. She was educated in the public schools of South Central Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Her interests in psychology emerged from the challenges the process of migration posed to her family. Dr. Flores obtained a B.A degree in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1970. She pursued a Masters Degree in Community-Clinical Psychology at C.S.U. Long Beach and completed a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at U.C. Berkeley in 1982.

For the past two decades, Dr. Flores has worked as a re search psychologist, university professor, and licensed psychologist. She has done postdoctoral work in health psychology, in particular substance abuse treatment outcome research and intimate partner violence. Her current research examines intimate partner violence among Mexicans on both sides of the border. Her publications reflect her life’s work of bridging clinical psychology and Chicano/Latino studies, as she foregrounds gender, ethnicity and sexualities in her clinical, teaching and research practices. Dr. Flores is the mother of two young adults and a passionate traveler.