Two Generations of Caring Clinical Psychologists

Elizabeth Cortez (Clinical Psychology, Ph.D., ’97) was the first in her family to pursue a doctorate when she came to the Gevirtz School’s Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology (CCSP) in 1992. The drive that helped her realize that dream, however, she inherited from her mother.

A former migrant farmworker, Elizabeth’s mother, Janie Cortez, used to say, “You know, when I was lying on my burlap sack and working in the cotton fields, I dreamed of having an office job someday.” By then an accountant, Elizabeth’s mother became a living example of how to collapse the distance between someday and now. “It’s like a stepping stone, right?” Elizabeth reflects. “She knew how to dream and how to create, so she created the path for me to know how to dream and how to create.” Elizabeth’s dream was to help others. CCSP became how to turn that dream into a reality.

Still, like her mother before her, Elizabeth had to pursue her dreams without a direct family example. She recalls one of the most challenging aspects of her graduate studies as “probably not having a road map, not having an understanding of what it would take to apply to graduate school and, you know, actually navigate graduate school.”

Undeterred, Elizabeth left Austin, Texas—where she was raised and educated—for Gevirtz in Goleta, California. She wanted to work with Dr. Merith Cosden (now Professor & Acting Dean Emeritus), whose research largely related to attachment theory. “I loved the work that she was doing,” Elizabeth shares. “Understanding the impact of those early relationships and how people form attachments later in life was something that was very interesting to me.”

With the mentorship of Dr. Cosden, Elizabeth initially wanted to “carry all of the things” in her career: to go into academia and do research, consulting, and practice. But while pursuing her clinical internship in Houston, TX during her final year of her graduate studies, she became pregnant with Juliana. So, Elizabeth decided to adjust her professional goals, prioritizing raising her children over personal ambition.

This change brought her to private practice, where she has remained working as a therapist for over 21 years. “I really enjoy doing work with the clients I see and witnessing their growth and their progress,” she shares. As a Latinx clinician in a field that is predominantly white, Elizabeth finds particular fulfillment in creating an inviting and safe therapeutic space for clients from minoritized backgrounds. “Knowing that a lot of the times, we just want to feel seen and heard and understood in our experiences, and being able to do that day to day with the people who come and see me and seeing they’re able to make the actual changes and seeing the growth in their lives” is what has kept her in the field.

Now, her daughter Juliana Ison, a first-year student in CCSP, is continuing the family legacy. Just as her mother selflessly prioritized caring for her children, Juliana’s current studies come from a similar position of selflessness. Her research goals are to help her Latinx community, particularly those who are often excluded from mainstream psychological healthcare models. For example, she is beginning her graduate research in Santa Barbara with a local coalition of promotoras, i.e., lay community health workers who work to reduce health disparities and increase mental wellness in primarily Latinx and low-resourced communities through a diverse range of interdisciplinary skills and knowledge.

After earning her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Spanish at the University of Notre Dame, Juliana spent three years working with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. There, she worked in a lab focused on improving diverse representation in research via community-based research methods, discovering her own research niche that would eventually lead her west. More specifically, it was this discovery of her passion for research methodology, such as implementation science and community-based participatory research methods, combined with her interest in serving her community, that drew her to Dr. Miya Barnett’s PADRES Lab.

The PADRES (Promoting Access through Dissemination/implementation Research on Evidence-based Services) Lab conducts community-based research with the aim of reducing mental health disparities for minoritized youth and families through culturally-sensitive dissemination and implementation science. The lab’s methodology aligns with Juliana’s research ethos: bringing humanity back to research participants and including people in research who are not typically considered. “I want to create research spaces that are more welcoming, and inclusive of people like the people who raised me whom I love very much,” Juliana explains.

That the Gervitz Graduate School of Education, her mother’s alma mater, happens to focus intensively on this kind of work was more serendipitous than predetermined. Juliana didn’t necessarily come to CCSP because her mom came here—“It was more just a good fit in every other way,” she says. Already, Juliana has loved the warm sense of collaboration and community she has found at Gevirtz, particularly within her cohort. “I just feel so grateful and honored and lucky to be among the other students here. They're all so wonderful,” she says, “I’m really looking forward to seeing all the incredible things they do.”

Still, Juliana finds comfort and inspiration in knowing her mother has been through the experiences she will go through. “There are days in grad school that are really, really hard,” she shares. A few weeks ago, Juliana spent a week working around 90 hours, juggling so many class assignments, research tasks, and presentations that the demands of her postsecondary education felt almost unmanageable. But, she points out, “Just knowing that my mom made her way and was able to do this and is where she is now—it’s been really helpful and comforting for me to remember why I’m on the journey and that it’s possible to make it to the other side.”

As for Elizabeth, she has little doubt that her daughter will not just make it to the other side, but will make a real difference in her journey there and beyond, driven by a deep care for the low-resourced and Latinx communities she works with and dedication to her goals. “I know she’s going to make a difference in the world, helping the people…our people.” Elizabeth tears up thinking about all her daughter has accomplished and will accomplish, pride in her eyes. “I had no idea in carrying that small child through my graduation ceremony that she would be here 25 years later. It’s just truly full circle, and it feels like if she were to be anywhere, this is the place she was supposed to be.”