The Miami campus of Albizu University recently graduated from its Ph.D. program in Psychology (PsyD) to the majority of Hispanic psychologists in Florida, an achievement that helps meet a critical need for Latino psychology professionals across the country, something that the American Psychological Association (APA) has termed it as a "rare commodity."
Albizu University is the number one institution in the United States and Florida in terms of Hispanics graduating  with advanced degrees, particularly women. Specifically in the metric of Hispanic women graduating from the PsyD program, Albizu shares first place nationally with only one other institution.
"The institution was  founded to meet the need for culturally sensitive mental health care, "explained Dr. Tilokie Depoo, Chancellor of the Miami Campus of Albizu University." Particularly when it comes to psychology, barriers to treatment can be especially complex in the Latino community. "
According to a national consensus of data, there are just over 7,000 psychologists of Hispanic origin in the United States, representing approximately 8.8 percent of all psychologists in the country. The disparity between Spanish-speaking providers and patients seeking care has been particularly notable in South Florida, with its huge Hispanic population.
The Hispanic population in the United States is expected to reach 119 million people by 2060, representing more than 28 percent of the country's general population, according to census projections.
During the 1960s, Carlos Albizu Miranda, a World War II Army veteran and one of the first Hispanics in the United States to earn a doctorate in psychology, realized during his teaching career that few graduate students in psychology of Hispanic origin were being trained with models and techniques that were not always appropriate or sensitive to the needs and sociocultural characteristics of Spanish-speaking clients.