User:Anjanadayal

Joseph O. Prewitt Diaz, born on November 23rd, 1943 in the central mountain regions of Puerto Rico in a town called Cayey. He was the first born in a cross-cultural family. His father was an American and his mother was a Puerto Rican. Right from his childhood he was a bilingual untill he travelled to France at the age of 12 and learned the third language, French.'''

Joseph Orlando Prewitt Diaz (PhD-Educational Psychology) is a practitioner scholar, recipient of the American Psychological Association International Humanitarian Award.

He has held faculty appointments at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey, The Pennsylvania State University, the Medical School of the National University of Honduras, the Program in Psychiatry, and the Graduate Program in Disaster Management, Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University in New Delhi, India. During his tenure in these Universities he has advised 32 doctoral dissertations and 96 master’s thesis.

He has authored 197 refereed publications, as well as authored and co-authored 37 books or chapters of books. Among the most prominent work are in Central America (1) Guía Metodologica: Diplomado para Interventores en Crisis, (2) Apoyo psicosocial en desastres: Un modelo para Guatemala, (3) Primeros Auxilios Psicológicos, and (4) Salud psicosocial en un desastre complejo: El efecto del Huracán Mitch en Nicaragua. In India he has co-edited two books (Laranayana and Murthy) “Disaster Mental Health in India” (2004), and Advances in Disaster Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (2006).

As a recipient of a Kellogg National Fellowship, he visited Brazil, Argentina and Mexico exploring the role of community health in improving the quality of life of the resource poor communities. A Woodrow Wilson Hispanic Fellowship resulted in the first draft of a book entitled “The Psychology of Puerto Rican Migration” (an ethnographic study). For his community services and advocacy he earned the Pennsylvania Governor’s Heritage Award in 1988.

In the 90’s Prewitt Diaz worked in Chester and Philadelphia, PA. he worked closely with the parents and children to create safe communities. His was recognized with the Governor’s Award for Voluntarism in 1997, and the National Education Association Civil Rights Leadership Award in 1998.

He was invited to become an International Delegate with the American Red Cross in 1999 where he served as a Psychosocial Support Delegate in Central and South America as well as South Asia. He developed and implemented a rights based approach to community psychosocial support programs after natural disasters. In 2001 he was awarded the ARC Lifesaving Award for his life saving actions in El Salvador.

He planned, and implemented the psychosocial support response to the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, Maldives, India, and Sri Lanka. In recognition of his efforts he was awarded the “Tiffany Award”, the highest award given to an employee by the American Red Cross.

He served as the Head of Programs for India of the American Red Cross. He directed two rights based integrated community based health programs serving about two and one-half million people. As a result of his work in India he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Indian Red Cross Society.

He served as a member of the team that drafted the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Mental Health and Psychosocial Support International Guidelines, and the Committee that drafted the Mental and Social Aspects of Health Standard in the SPHERE manual (The Humanitarian Charter and Minimum standards in Disaster Response).