Azara Santiago-Rivera, PhD

Interim Dean, Graduate School of Counseling 
Naropa University 

Dr. Santiago Rivera, PhD, NCC is the Interim Dean of the Graduate School of Counseling, Naropa University, Boulder, CO. She is also a Professor Emerita and formally the Founding Director of the Clinical Mental Health Program at Merrimack College, North Andover, MA. She also served in the role of Founding Chair of the Department of Counseling, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (TCSPP), Washington, DC campus. In addition, she was a faculty member at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI and the University at Albany, NY. 

Dr. Santiago Rivera served as the Dean of Academic Affairs at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. While serving in this capacity on the Washington, DC campus she collaborated with institution’s leadership to build an infrastructure that supports academic programs and student services. This effort included hiring a diverse faculty and staff and developing recruitment activities and retention strategies. In her role as Dean of Academic Affairs on the Chicago campus major accomplishments included creating partnerships with area universities to potentially serve as pipelines to the graduate programs and creating initiatives to advance early career faculty with a focus on publishing, teaching strategies, and tenure and promotion processes.

Dr. Santiago Rivera’ professional and leadership positions in professional organizations include President of the National Latinx Psychological Association, President of the Latino Mental Health Association of New Jersey, and President of Counselors for Social Justice, a division of the American Counseling Association. She is the Founding Editor of the Journal of Latinx Psychology and is a Fellow of Divisions 45 and 17 of the American Psychological Association (APA). In 2014 Dr. Santiago-Rivera received the APA Presidential Citation for outstanding contribution to the profession. She served as a committee member and chair of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education’s Outstanding Dissertation Awards Committee and is currently the Past-Chair of AAHHE’s Board of Directors. Her doctorate degree is in Counseling from Wayne State University, Detroit MI.