Dr. J Rocky Romero, LMSW is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and owner of JR Romero & Associates, which began in 2003 with a focus on behavioral health program development, program evaluation, consultation, and specialized training. Dr. Romero completed his doctoral studies at the University of New Mexico in Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies (LLSS) with a focus on analyzing legal discourse related so Spanish colonization while applying a critical race theory lens. Dr. Romero was a doctoral fellow for El Centro de la Raza at the University of New Mexico during his doctoral studies where he also served as the President of the College of Education’s student Graduate Association in LLSS. Dr. Romero is a former Assistant Professor for New Mexico Highlands University School of Social Work in Albuquerque, NM. He served as the co-chair for Governor Richardson’s New Mexico Higher Education Cultural Competency Taskforce. Dr. Romero has also served as an Executive Council member for the NM- Consortium for Behavioral Health Training and Research to include many other boards and committees. Dr. Romero has been a trainer and consultant for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funded National Hispanic & Latino-Mental Health Technology Transfer Center for the last 13 years. In his role as a Technical Assistance expert for the NHL-MHTTC he has recently helped plan, develop, solicit local and national funding for the Northeast Regional Crisis and Treatment Center developed by San Miguel County in Las Vegas, NM. Also, the NHL-MHTTC has contracted with Dr. Romero and a co-author to create a

prevention curriculum on: Latino Youth Gang Involvement: The Impact of Trauma, the Social Determinants of Health, and the School to Prison Pipeline.

Through his substance use prevention work, he is a national and international senior trainer for Clare|Matrix, formerly the Matrix Institute on Addictions, for the last 14 years. In this role Dr. Romero trains community and government-based agencies on how to implement and utilize the evidence-based substance use disorder model to treatment fidelity. Dr. Romero trains approximately 25 agencies annually and is the primary trainer for indigenous and tribal communities both nationally and internationally.

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Since the National Latino Behavioral Health Association (NLBHA) was awarded the NHL-ATTC and the NHL-PTTC grants Dr. Romero has served as a faculty member for the national Leadership Academy in addition to providing technical assistance and training for the centers. In this role he has helped plan curriculum content, helped develop guiding structures and principles, taught courses while provided mentoring to the nationally selected fellows since 2017-18. Dr. Romero has co-published, with SAMHSA attempting to glean the impact of the Opioid Epidemic on Latinx populations. Dr. Romero continues to slowly grow his publications. Dr. Romero is the Vice President of the New Mexico Association of Addiction Professionals, formerly NAADC-NM. Along with the NHL-MHTTC Dr. Romero has developed and planned an annual Suicide Prevention Summit in New Mexico to train school personnel, parents, students, and clinicians in suicide prevention strategies. Dr. Romero continues to serve as a coalition member for the New Mexico Suicide Prevention Coalition and leads the legislative sub-committee as part of that work. Lastly, he is focused on teaching culturally appropriate treatment approaches while reducing health disparities for people of color. Dr. Romero continues to research and present nationally on the intersections of racism, discrimination, the impact of racialized legal discourse, and the impact of the social determinants of health on people of color. Dr. Romero presents nationally and internationally and has been featured for several national conferences as a keynote presenter.