Dr. Maria Aguilar-Amaya

Dr. María Aguilar-Amaya is Associate Director of the Office of Evaluation and Partner Contracts at the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center within Arizona State University. She is a Faculty Associate in the School of Social Work. Her current research focuses on health equity, substance use disorder, and opioid use disorder. She has extensive experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative research and survey development for the past 25 years and strong skills in all areas of program evaluation. Dr. Aguilar-Amaya served nearly 25 years working in the Arizona Judiciary in various capacities, having worked with juvenile and adult probationers as well as crime victims. She has conducted dozens of research studies and numerous ad hoc reports in the areas of population projections, cost savings analysis, reentry, recidivism, Drug Courts, substance abuse, evidence-based practices, and probation supervision. Dr. Aguilar-Amaya possesses the following certifications and certificates in: Real Colors Facilitator by the National Curriculum & Training Institute, ACEs Trainer by the Arizona ACEs Consortium, CTC Facilitator by the UW, The Center for Communities that Care, Arizona Court Management Program and the Executive Court Management Program by the National Center for State Courts, Advanced Public Speaker by Achieve Global, and as a Motivational Interviewing Facilitator. Dr. Aguilar-Amaya possesses a Bachelor of Science in Administration of Justice with a minor in Communications, a Masters in Organizational Management, and a Doctorate in Management and Organizational Leadership. She served as President for the Arizona Evaluation Network (AZENet), as a Director at Large for the Arizona Courts Association, and as a member of the Arizona Governor's Office Substance Abuse Epidemiology Work Group.