MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP , Doctoral (Current)
Laura Mata Lopez, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP is pursuing a PhD at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHSON) in Baltimore, MD. Born and raised in Costa Rica, her practice and research are informed by stories of hardship and resilience passed down by generations of women in her family, and those entrusted to her by patients. These fuel her commitment to highlight the perspectives of Latino(a) immigrants and communities in research. As a public health nurse and a lifespan psychiatric nurse practitioner certified is addiction, she provides low-barrier, culturally and linguistically sensitive, integrated mental health and substance use services to Latino(a) immigrants in a safety-net community.
Ms. Mata Lopez has worked in an array of public settings including federally qualified health centers, mobile health, and county mental health systems. In her research, she seeks to leverage community partnerships and mixed methods to explore the impact of migration-related trauma and social stressors on the suicide and mental health outcomes of Latina immigrants. She also hopes to elucidate how Latina immigrants navigate disruptions in social capital that occur during migration by seeking communal resources and interactions to collectively mitigate the impact of trauma and stress.
She served as a member of the Proposition 64 Advisory Committee through the Department of Health Care Services for the State of California and is currently a member of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) Policy and Advocacy Committee.
She holds a BSN and MSN from Boston College School of Nursing (BCSON) and is a recipient of the Nurse Corps Scholarship through the Human Resources and Services Administration. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society Alpha Chi (BCSON) and Nu Beta (JHSON) Chapters. She is a member of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, NAHN, and the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science.