She received her B.A. in Psychology from UC Berkeley and her Ph.D. from the UC San Diego/San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Chavira has been a recipient of a NIH/NIMH Mentored Research Scientist Award (K01), which provided funding for projects to examine barriers to service use, engagement strategies, and interventions for children with anxiety disorders in primary care settings; with a subfocus on Latino youth. Dr. Chavira also has received NIH/NIMH funding to support a pilot intervention examining the feasibility of telephone based, cognitive behavior therapy for rural Latino youth with anxiety disorders. She publishes in the areas of child and adult anxiety disorders, Latino mental health, mental health services research, and cognitive behavior therapy.