Hector Perez

Héctor (they/them) is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) in Worcester, MA. They work as the Assistant Director of Social Services at the Family Health Center of Worcester, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center. Héctor manages the Behavioral Health Internship Program and is the creator/lead provider of the Gender Affirming Care and Services Program. Since 2014, Héctor has trained over 35 advanced-year graduate students from several academic programs (MSW, MA in Counseling, and Psy.D.).

As a Gender Specialist, Héctor has been invited to present and train on best practices for delivering health care when working with LBGTQIA+ folks. Héctor has trained clinicians at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Family Medicine and Community Health Residency at UMass Medical School, the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, Taravista Behavioral Health Center, Anna Maria College’s MSW Program, the UMass Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (Grand Rounds), and at the Graduate School of Nursing at the UMass Medical School. In 2019, Héctor joined the training team of the Nurse Practitioner Residency Program at FHCW, where they evaluate NP residents through a practice-performance evaluation model.

Héctor comes to the Ph.D. program with previous teaching experience at the BSW and MSW level. They taught an experiential international social work course, which brought BSW students to the bateyes of Santo Domingo to work on community advancement, health outreach projects, and infrastructure development. Their international social work experience led to their selection to present a workshop at the 2012 Global Social Work Student Conference in New York City.

Héctor’s research interests are in delivering culturally responsive gender-affirming health care, integrated behavioral health care, and the integration of behavioral health interventions into medical education and residency training through in-vivo observation and feedback.