The Family Acceptance Project team includes Project Director, Caitlin Ryan , Senior Quantitative Researcher, Rafael Dìaz, Project Coordinator, Jorge Sanchez, and Program Assistant, Julia Palm. Teresa Betancourt worked on the first two phases of the project.

Undergraduate and graduate students work on the project as interns and volunteers, completing independent studies, theses and culminating experiences. Students work as an integral part of the research team and receive intensive training in grants management and project coordination, outreach and community collaboration, qualitative and quantitative research methods and analysis, and develop interviewing, recruitment, research administration and writing skills.

Teresa Betancourt

Teresa Betancourt worked as a Research Associate and Community Coordinator for the first 5 years of the Family Acceptance Project. Teresa has extensive experience working in adolescent health, community activism, and social change and awareness programs. She began working with youth in New York in 1992 and has focused her work on HIV prevention, reproductive health, advocacy, and youth development. For the last 8 years, she has worked in San Francisco with homeless youth, at two transitional residential programs, and at a community health center (Mission Neighborhood Health Center) for 5 years, where she managed a variety of youth programs and services, ranging from one-on-one counseling, group interventions, a computer-based educational program, classroom presentations, and a comprehensive, multidisciplinary Teen Clinic. Teresa is an alumni member of the Institute for HIV Prevention Leadership (IHPL) in Atlanta; on the board of directors of Horizons Unlimited of SF; and a leader advisor for "Mujer, Salud y Liderazgo," a program of The Latina Center. Teresa has served as a member of the San Francisco HIV Prevention Planning Council since June 2000, and on several local committees and initiatives.

Rafael Dìaz

Rafael Dìaz is a social worker and a developmental psychologist with post-doctoral training at The Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS), at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He was a faculty member at the University of New Mexico, Stanford University, and UCSF's CAPS program where he began his work on Latino gay men and HIV. Rafael is a Professor of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and Director of the César E. Chávez Institute (CCI), a research and training center that focuses on the impact of social oppression on the health, education, and well-being of disenfranchised communities in the U.S. His research includes major studies on Latino gay men, sexuality and substance use, including two 4-year studies "A Sociocultural Model of HIV Risk in Latino Gay Men," using qualitative, quantitative and intervention design methods in Los Angeles, Miami and New York, and "Drug Use and Risky Sexual Behavior in Latino Gay Men" and a 5-year study of community involvement as a protective factor for HIV infection among Latino gay men.

Rafael initiated the Family Acceptance Project with Caitlin Ryan in 2002 as a demonstration project for community participatory research models. The project is also the first study of LGB youth and families and the first comprehensive study of sexual orientation and Latino families. Rafael has written extensively on bilingualism, self-regulation, Latino gay men, sexuality and culture. His book, Latino Gay Men and HIV: Culture, Sexuality, & Risk Behavior, has become the guiding framework for developing HIV prevention interventions with gay men of color.

Caitlin Ryan

Caitlin Ryan is a clinical social worker who has worked on lesbian and gay health and mental health since the 1970s, and AIDS since 1982. She received her clinical training with children and adolescents at Smith College School for Social Work in inpatient and community mental health programs, and began her social work career in school-based psychoeducational settings. Her research includes the National Lesbian Health Care Survey, the first major study to identify lesbian health and mental health needs and concerns; the development of the GSA Policy Project, an initiative to study the impact of Gay Straight Alliances on school climate and youth development; care of LGBT youth in faith-based agencies; and the Family Acceptance Project, which she developed with Rafael Diaz in 2002 to improve care and health outcomes for queer youth.

Her most recent book, Lesbian & Gay Youth: Care & Counseling—the first comprehensive guide to health and mental health care for lesbian and gay youth—was written as a follow up to the federal government's first conference on the primary care needs of lesbian and gay youth which she coordinated for the Health Resources and Services Administration. A founder of many community organizations, her work has been acknowledged by many groups, including the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights and the National Association of People With AIDS. In 1988 she was named "Social Worker of the Year" by the National Association of Social Workers for her leadership and contributions to the AIDS epidemic and social change. Caitlin is currently the Director of Adolescent Health Initiatives at the César E. Chávez Institute, SFSU.

Jorge Sanchez

Jorge Sanchez, is an ethnographer and Project Coordinator for the Family Acceptance Project. A native of Colombia, Jorge received his degree in Social Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. After working as an ESL instructor at Albany Middle School, Jorge served as the Program Director for the Oakland Recycling Association where he worked with instructors in the Oakland Unified School District to develop conservation resource curricula for middle school students. He began working in HIV education in 1996 as a facilitator for safe-sex workshops for Latino gay and bisexual men. Jorge joined the staff of Proyecto Contra SIDA Por Vida (PCPV), a Latina/o lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender HIV service agency, where he worked as Coordinator of Health Education/Media Specialist for two and a half years. After leaving Proyecto, Jorge worked as a member of the research team for a NIDA-funded study headed by Rafael Diaz on HIV Risk and Substance Use among gay and bisexual Latino men at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS). He moved to San Francisco State University (SFSU) as a member of Rafael's research team where he currently works at the César E. Chávez Institute. Jorge has served in a variety of roles, as a member of the Board of Directors of PCPV, and on the City of Berkeley's Health and Waste Commission.

Student Interns and Volunteers

During the academic year and summer session, student interns and community volunteers have worked on the project in a wide range of capacities. Internships are generally planned in advance through academic and community programs, but interested students can contact the Project Director at fap@sfsu.edu to learn about internship and volunteer opportunities.

Project Consultants

Bill Bettencourt

Consultant
Family to Family Initiative

Gary Harper

Professor, Depaul University
Department of Psychology

Dave Huebner

Assistant Professor, University of Maryland
Department of Psychology

Stephen Russell

Associate Professor, Family Studies & Human Development
University of Arizona
http://ag.arizona.edu/fcs/fshd/people/russell/russell.htm

Andy Wong & Amos Lim

Chinese for Affirmative Action, API Equality
San Francisco, CA
www.apiequality.org