Note: As of February 2013, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evaluation Fellowship Program has closed. More information about the program can be found at RWJF.org.

Profile Jose Reyes

Having experienced many of the challenges faced by disadvantage and underserved communities in Los Angeles County, Jose Reyes developed a passion and personal commitment for social service. He began his engagement in social work as a youth counselor. During his enrollment in the School of Social Work graduate program at the University of Southern California, he delivered mental health services to individuals affected or diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. He was also the lead research assistant for an academic, nonprofit research organization that developed, implemented, and evaluated a randomized behavioral trial of depression care among an underserved, low-literate, older Latino population with severe depression funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. While a graduate student, he also became involved with an academic research collaboration project between the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and the School of Social Work: The project focused on introducing a cross-cultural and work-training intervention for Spanish- and Korean-speaking individuals working in a sweat shop located in the Mexican state of Puebla.

After graduation, Jose continued his work in research and program evaluation with Special Service for Groups (SSG), a local, multi-dimensional nonprofit organization based in Southern California. As a research analyst with SSG, Jose worked on several community health needs assessments; on the development and management of an information system for an in-house research project; and spearheaded several other organizational capacity-building projects.