Gabriela Fuentes, BS
Discipline: Psychology
About: Gabriela is a graduate of Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, where she obtained a BS in Psychology with a specialization in Behavioral Neuroscience. This degree provided Gabriela extensive understanding and knowledge of the biological mechanisms and how the brain senses and perceives the environment, stores and retrieves memories, generates emotions, controls behavior, and produces consciousness. While working on her second degree, Gabriela worked as a caseworker for Presente! Maine, a non-profit organization that works to empower displaced indigenous and Afro-Latinx peoples of Maine through survival programs, community power building, cultural celebration, and transformative healing practice.
Gabriela was born and raised in Cochabamba, Bolivia and immigrated to the United States at a young age of eight. Gabriela has lived in Arlington, Virginia for most of her life until recently moving to Maine in 2020. As an immigrant Gabriela is a strong and loud advocate for the Latinx community in Maine. Her life experience and her work have revealed the undignifying ways some nonprofits and governmental organizations treat immigrants, people of color, and people with disabilities. This has fueled Gabriela’s mission to stop the cycle of mistreatment bidirectional support, where personal growth can only happen if and only if others are also growing. “The only way to evoke change is by treating each person with dignity and respect, my end goal is to help vulnerable communities reach its fullest potential.”
