Linda M. Callejas, PhD
Biography
Linda M. Callejas conducts research and evaluation in the areas of collaborative community development initiatives, behavioral health disparities among minority populations, and racial and ethnic identity formation, especially among U.S. Latino populations. She currently serves as a co-principal investigator on Project Conectar: Building Capacity in a Community to Learn the Signs. Act Early, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The project seeks to reduce disparities in early identification of autism and other developmental disabilities and increase access to services in the largely Latino/Hispanic Little Havana community in Miami, FL.
Previously, Dr. Callejas served as the principal investigator for the Community-Defined Evidence Project (CDEP) sponsored by a partnership between the National Network to Eliminate Disparities (NNED) and the National Latino Behavioral Health Association (NLBHA) and funded by SAMHSA and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. From 2003-2006, she worked as project director of the RAICES/Promotoras Field Initiated Development Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, during which she developed a training curriculum for locally funded school-linked case management teams in Hillsborough County public schools that integrate the promotoras model of outreach.
Dr. Callejas received her doctorate in Applied Anthropology in the fall of 2010. Her dissertation entitled, “Contemporary Afro-Cuban Voices in Tampa: Reclaiming Heritage in ‘America's Next Greatest City,’” examines issues related to cultural heritage representation and ethnic/racial identity formation among 4th and 5th generation descendants of Black Cuban cigar workers in Ybor City, Florida. In 2003, she received a Latino Studies Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution to support preliminary research on her dissertation.
