By MARISSA GARCIA
Published: May 20, 2014

HOLA North Carolina is Fox 50’s first bilingual local TV program broadcast every Sunday morning at 10:30am. The show educates viewers on various issues affecting the Latino community and keeps everyone informed about news/events. The show is intended for viewers who speak English, Spanish, and both. 

Each week there is a Latino leader segment in which a local leader is selected to appear on the show and share their professional journey. The segment’s goal is to highlight role models to motivate Latino youth to seek a college education and a professional career.

It is with great honor to announce that HOLA North Carolina’s Latina Leader for the week of May 11^th was Dr. Mae Lynn Reyes-Rodríguez. Currently, Dr. Reyes-Rodríguez is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders in the Department of Psychiatry. She is also the Principal Investigator for the study called PAS Project (Promoviendo una Alimentacion Saludable/ Promoting Healthy Eating).

Although she was born in New York, she was raised in Puerto Rico. From a young age, she always knew that her passion was psychology. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras (UPR). She then went on to pursue her PhD at UPR in Academic and Research Psychology and years later completed a second specialization in Clinical Psychology. She then accomplished a three year Post-doctorate at UPR that was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). And about six years ago she moved from Puerto Rico to expand her research to North Carolina. She is currently adapting an eating disorder intervention for Latinas in the United States.

Dr. Reyes-Rodríguez gave very helpful advice during the segment such as taking advantage of mentoring programs. They’re a great resource that can help you expand your professional network and pair you up with an expert in your field who can guide you down your professional journey. Her other helpful piece of advice was to always believe in yourself. There will be people who won’t believe in your work and sometimes you will receive rejections. Her philosophy is to only dwell a day or two on a rejection and then move on. Never give up and always keep your goal in mind and be persistent. Where there is desire and passion, nothing or no one can stop you from achieving your professional dreams. Dr. Reyes-Rodríguez’ determination and goal-oriented attitude allowed her to become the psychologist, researcher, and leader that she is today.

To see the Hola North Carolina’s Latino Leader segment please click on the here. Dr. Reyes-Rodríguez was featured in minute 17:22.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks via Creative Commons