Octavio Santos has been awarded the 2017 APA/APAGS Award for Distinguished Graduate Student in Professional Psychology by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) for his outstanding practice and application of psychology. He was nominated by Drs. Antonio Puente, APA President, and Karen Postal, President of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN). This prestigious national award will be presented to him at the APA/APF Awards Ceremony followed by his 50-minute Award Address to the membership at the 2017 APA Convention in Washington, DC. His award citation, biography, and selected bibliography will be published in the American Psychologist later this year.

Octavio is currently finishing his internship at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio, TX, and has recently been accepted to the Clinical Neuropsychology Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. His doctoral and internship training has offered him well-balanced generalist and specialty experiences, including evidence-based individual/group psychotherapy and neuropsychological assessment in English/Spanish with diverse neurological, psychiatric, and medical populations in community, university, and hospital settings. His professional interests include addressing challenges in assessment and treatment of culturally and linguistically diverse populations, particularly in the Hispanic/Latino community. Being bilingual-bicultural, he strives to respond to the rapidly growing need to develop and provide culturally sensitive neuropsychological services to Hispanics and other underserved populations.