Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo, Ph.D.

Personal Information

Dr. Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo, C.R. Hutcheson Professor in Human Development & Family Sciences, currently serves as Vice Provost for International Affairs. She is the founder director of the TTU Cross-Cultural Studies (CCS) Program that includes a graduate minor and an online graduate certificate (2011-present) and she was also the founder director of the online Masters in Youth Development- Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (GPIDEA; 2014-2021). She is an International Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social Work, College of Applied Social Sciences at State University of Ponta Grossa, Paraná-Brazil (2018-present) and in the School of Medicine, Biostatistics & Epidemiology (2014-present) and the Department of Psychology (2012-present) at CES University, Colombia (South America). Her research focuses on positive youth development, toxic-stress, trauma and resilience in ethnic and racial minorities and underserved populations using cross-cultural/cross-national mixed comparative methodologies and participatory action research (PAR). Trejos-Castillo has edited two books and has over 70 scholarly publications and book chapters in national/international journals and volumes in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Over the past 30 years, she has worked closely with numerous national and international collaborators (e.g., Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Greece, Honduras, India, Norway, Spain, Sweden), local community and statewide partners (e.g., Lubbock ISD, Lubbock-Cooper ISD, Spur ISD, office of dispute resolution for Lubbock county, court appointed special advocates-CASA) to support the well-being and positive development of minority and vulnerable youth. Dr. Trejos-Castillo is a two-time Fulbright Scholar recipient and has served as Fulbright Liaison for Texas Tech since 2019.

CV

Research Interests

• Positive Youth Development and Well-Being
• Toxic Stress, Trauma, and Trauma-Informed Practices
• Externalizing-Internalizing Behaviors
• Ethnic/Racial Minorities and Immigrant Youth
• Cross-Cultural and Cross-National Comparative Research
• Quantitative-Qualitative Mixed Methods
• Participatory Action Research (PAR)
• Program Development, Implementation, and Evaluation

Positive Youth Development Lab

Future Research Collaboration Interests

• Positive youth development & well being 
• Cross-national/ Cross-cultural research 
• Community-based participatory action research 
• Program Development, Implementation, and Evaluation