Arabella Perez, LCSW

Arabella Perez, LCSW, was a system of care director from 2005-2015, leading three Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grants. During these years, she managed to find time to start a non-profit, THRIVE, a technical assistance center for trauma-informed care. She is a certified cultural competency trainer and has presented extensively, both locally and nationally, on Trauma Systems Change, Cultural and Linguistic Competency issues, and Youth-Adult Partnerships. She is a founding member of several community collaboratives and has provided ethnic self-help organizations with logic modeling and nonprofit development support. She provides technical assistance and consultation to states and communities on the development of trauma informed systems and provides system of care consultation through federal site monitoring and one on one peer mentoring for the American Institutes for Research (AIR) Technical Assistance Partnership in Washington D.C. and the University of Maryland’s Technical Assistance Network.