Beatriz Reyes-Foster

Beatriz Reyes-Foster is a Professor and Interim Associate Dean of Student Services in the College of Graduate Studies at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Her research focuses on the intersections of health, medicine, and society, particularly addressing mental health disparities, reproduction, coloniality, and gender. She holds a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from UC Berkeley (2011) and has been at UCF since 2011. Her work bridges medical anthropology and feminist ethnography, examining issues like maternal mental health, obstetric violence, and mental health systems in Mexico and the U.S.

Key publications include Psychiatric Encounters (2018), analyzing Mexico’s mental healthcare, and Sharing Milk (2020), co-authored with Shannon Carter, exploring human milk sharing practices. Current projects address mental well-being in migrant returnees to Mexico and maternal mental health in surgical birth contexts. She employs ethnographic methods like photovoice and mixed-methods analysis.

Her research highlights colonial legacies in healthcare systems and advocates for systemic reforms in academia and clinical settings. She actively contributes to policy discussions on mental health and maternal care through interdisciplinary collaborations.