Dr. Liza Cariaga-Lo is an internationally renowned and respected academic, educator, psychologist, workforce development specialist, and evaluator. She has had over 20 years in higher education leadership and is the ideal person to serve GGC’s chief liaison with institutes of higher education and large school districts to engage support, research and evaluation, and financial partnerships to scale and sustain the SMART® Model. She has served as Vice President for Academic Development, Diversity, and Inclusion and as a faculty member in the education department at Brown University. Prior to that, Dr. Cariaga-Lo was Assistant Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Harvard University. She was also previously the Assistant Dean at the Yale Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and the Director of Yale’s Office for Diversity and Equal Opportunity, as well as a faculty member at Yale Medical School. She has also been an Assistant Professor of Medical Education at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She received her doctoral training in developmental psychology from Harvard University.
Dr. Cariaga-Lo’s long-standing collaborations with Ginn Group Collaborative (GGC) and Melanie Ginn, its President and CEO, commenced immediately after her introduction to Ginn in 2014 at the Inaugural CVS Health and Hispanic Heritage Foundation Latinos On Fast Track (LOFT) Symposium, which was hosted by CVS Workforce Initiatives in Providence, Rhode Island. Upon learning of Ginn’s work to reimagine and integrate health care as a purposeful driver of educational attainment for vulnerable populations, Dr. Cariaga-Lo generously offered her expertise, resources, analysis, and heartfelt support to this innovative and valuable work.
In her role within GGC, Dr. Cariaga-Lo advises GGC’s CEO and co-leads the company’s talented education division, comprised of former school principals, administrators, teachers, and school health professionals, on SMART®’s multiyear expansion and scaling plans. Dr. Cariaga-Lo also provides guidance on strategic planning and sustainability for SMART® national and regional infrastructure to support institutionalizing the Model. She represents GGC to multisector stakeholders and at key national and regional meetings, conferences, and events, and she also works with internal teams to advance communication, strategic planning, and engagement at all five phases of SMART® Implementation, from the Inquiry Phase to the Legacy Phase. She leads the SMART® integrated behavioral health team, and her expertise and leadership also extend to the work of the SMART® Foundation, supporting its certification, professional development, and grantee application processes.
Dr. Cariaga-Lo also leads the SMART® Foundation’s SMART® Plus health-professionals pipeline, a collaboration with the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. SMART® Plus phased in at Calcutt Middle School’s SMART® site in Central Falls, RI, in May of 2023. The unique talent pipeline’s first postdoctoral resident, Christine Paula Lewis-de los Angeles, MD, PhD, began observing clinicians at the Calcutt SMART® Center as part of a clinical elective experience for her postdoctoral training in pediatrics, psychiatry, and child psychiatry at Brown University/Hasbro Children’s Hospitals.
Dr. Cariaga-Lo is also the CEO and Founder of The LCLO Group, an equity-centered higher education and workforce development consulting firm that focuses on talent cultivation, workforce development, and educational capacity building and provides strategic consultation to educational and corporate entities to develop global and national public-private partnerships aimed at addressing educational, health, and economic development access and equity issues.
