Felipa Chavez

Felipa Chavez serves as Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at Florida Institute of Technology, directing Building Blocks: PCIT—a community outreach program providing evidence-based Parent-Child Interaction Therapy through the Scott Center for Autism. Her clinical work focuses on treating behavioral disorders (ADHD, conduct disorder, ASD) while addressing family dysfunction through parent-child dynamics.

Dr. Chavez earned her B.A. from New York University (1990), M.A. (1997), and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with child/family concentration from SUNY at Buffalo (2000), followed by an NIAAA post-doctoral fellowship at UB’s Research Institute on Addictions.

Her research program examines family dysfunction through parent-child interactions, with specialized expertise in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and Teacher-Child Interaction Therapy (TCIT). She develops culturally sensitive interventions for Black families (supporting Black Lives Matter) and investigates connections between parental substance abuse, marital conflict, and child psychopathology. Current projects include The Power of Kin and studying PCIT’s impact on reducing dyadic stress and child abuse potential.

Her scholarly output shows sustained focus on family dynamics across decades, with recent work (2021) exploring parental cooperation buffers for children of divorce building on earlier research (2004) into alcoholic family systems.

• NIAAA post-doctoral fellowship
• Junior Investigator Award (2002, Research Society on Alcoholism)

Dr. Chavez has trained 60+ clinical psychology graduate students in PCIT while securing grants including a $25,000 award to train Philadelphia-based Black/Latino clinicians in culturally adapted PCIT and a Fight Against Community Violence Target grant for Project Play—delivering TCIT to at-risk classrooms to improve academic performance and reduce teacher stress.

She leads Building Blocks: PCIT and Project Play research teams, operating through Florida Tech’s Community Psychological Services center with community partnerships spanning schools, daycares, and autism support networks.