Dr. Heidi Zetzer, Director of the Hosford Clinic, presents Veronica Franco with her award
Veronica Franco, a doctoral student at the Gevirtz School at UC Santa Barbara, has been awarded a Ray E. Hosford Award for Excellence in Clinical Dedication for 2018-19. This award is for service she performed at the Hosford Counseling and Psychological Services Clinic at UC Santa Barbara.
Franco was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and received her B.A. in Sociology and Educational Sciences from the UC Irvine and received her M.S in Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Under the guidance of Dr. Melissa Morgan Consoli in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology (CCSP) of UC Santa Barbara, Franco’s professional and research interests involve exploring marginalized communities resilience, validation, well-being, and coping strategies; protective factors prompting mental health of communities; and Latinx persistence patterns and experiences in higher education. During her time as a student she has served as a coach, mental health clinician, and as a facilitator, engaging in discussions about diversity, multiculturalism, and social justice topics.
The Hosford Counseling & Psychological Services Clinic is a university-based community clinic that is designed to provide developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive, low-cost individual, couple, family, and group psychological treatment and testing/assessment services to people living within the central coast community. The Hosford Clinic serves as a training site for students in CCSP and as a clinical-research facility for the faculty and students of the CCSP Department. It also strives to provide educational, consultation, and training services to professional and paraprofessional clinicians and educators in the tri-counties.