Dr. Ana Puig, Assistant Scholar
Research Director, Office of Educational Research
131 Norman Hall
POB 117040
Gainesville, FL 32611-7040
Phone - 352-273-4121
Fax - 352-846-0131
Email - anapuig@coe.ufl.edu
Background
Ana Isabel Puig, a native of the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, received her PhD in Counselor Education, specializing in Mental Health Counseling, at the University of Florida in 2004. She earned her MA in Student Personnel in Higher Education at the University of South Florida in Tampa, and her BA in sociology from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette. Dr. Puig was an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling at Our Lady of Holy Cross college in New Orleans, Louisiana from 2004-2005, before returning to the University of Florida. She is now an assistant scholar and Research Director in the Office of Educational Research and affiliate faculty in the Department of Counselor Education. She is also an Associate Director of the Executive Board, Center for Spirituality & Health at the University of Florida and is in charge of its research programs. Dr. Puig has worked as a mental health counselor and program coordinator in community mental health inpatient and outpatient settings and has over fifteen years of experience serving diverse client populations. Dr Puig is a licensed mental health counselor and qualified supervisor in the state of Florida and a National Certified Counselor. She holds a Spirituality and Health certificate from the Center for Spirituality and Health at UF. She has taught courses in Brief Therapy, Social and Cultural Foundations (Multicultural Counseling), Research Methods and Program Evaluation, Counseling in Community Settings, Clinical Internship Supervision in Community Counseling, School Counseling and Marriage & Family Therapy, and Mindful Living. Her areas of clinical interest include Multicultural Spirituality & Health Issues in Counseling and Creativity in Counseling & Supervision. Dr Puig is a member of the American Counseling Association, the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision , and the American Educational Research Association.
Areas of Interest and Inquiry
Dr Puig’s research interests have focused on the areas of complementary therapies in breast cancer care, spirituality and health issues in counseling, racial identity development, religiosity and academic achievement, feminist and postmodern qualitative inquiry, and multicultural spirituality. She is currently involved in a collaborative, needs assessment pilot study to inform the development of a parenting capacities training program model to improve child and adolescent physical and mental health outcomes. She is developing a follow-up study exploring the efficacy of a self-guided complementary therapy protocol to enhance emotional expression, psychological well-being, and spiritual well-being of newly diagnosed, early stage breast cancer patients and is wrapping up a qualitative research (grounded theory) study on multicultural expressions of spirituality.
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