Psychology Professor Wins Distinguished Faculty Award

Milton A. Fuentes, professor and coordinator of Undergraduate Advising for Psychology, has been selected for the 2021 New Jersey Psychological Association Academic & Scientific Affairs’ Distinguished Faculty Award, which will formally be awarded at the 2021 NJPA Virtual Fall Conference Award Ceremony.

“I am honored and humbled by this award,” says Fuentes. “Since much of my work centers on equity, diversity and inclusion, I share this award with all the BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] research participants and research assistants, who made these scholarly endeavors possible. In the spirit of ‘Ubuntu,’ a tenet from humanist African philosophy – I am because they are.”

The NJPA Academic & Scientific Affairs’ Distinguished Faculty Award acknowledges the efforts of a psychology faculty member, either full-time faculty or holding a scientific position, for their research, teaching or training efforts. The awardee receives a certificate and a $200 award, with the expectation that the faculty member awards one of their lab students with the monetary award.

Fuentes received an MA in Psychology with a Latinx psychology focus from Montclair State University and an PsyD in clinical psychology from Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology. He completed a pre-doctoral fellowship in clinical and community psychology at Yale University and secured post-doctoral training in epidemiology at Columbia University. He is the 2012 president of the National Latinx Psychological Association.

Fuentes has served as an ethnic minority delegate to the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Council of Representatives and as a member of APA’s Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest, APA’s Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs, and the APA Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Collaborative.

Fuentes’ research and clinical interests are in the areas of Latinx, multicultural and family psychology, and program development, pedagogy and motivational enhancement. He serves as a consultant to several organizations, including the former Violence Prevention Office of the American Psychological Association as well as numerous institutions of higher education, community-based agencies and corporate clients.

After engaging in an extensive and competitive application process and completing the relevant forum training, he secured membership in the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. Fuentes is also a licensed psychologist in New Jersey and New York.