Dr. Edil Torres Rivera, Professor
1206 Norman Hall
POB 117046
Gainesville, FL 32611-7046
Phone - 352-273-4325
Fax - 352-846-2697
Email - edil0001@coe.ufl.edu
Background
Edil Torres Rivera was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He graduated from the Eugenio María De Hostos high school and studied for three years at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico before dropping out to join the United States Army. During his 12-year Army career, Dr. Torres completed a bachelor’s degree from Excelsior College (University of the State of New York) and a master’s degree in education with a concentration in mental health counseling from Boston University. As a soldier he performed a variety of duties; however, for his last nine years in the military, Dr. Torres worked as a "Behavioral Science Specialist," in which he was a mental health counselor in Fort Eustis, Virginia, and a drug and alcohol counselor in Kirchgöens and the 97th General hospital in Germany. In 1991, while stationed at the United Army Military Academy in West Point New York, he was recruited by the Counseling Psychology Program Coordinator of the University of Connecticut to begin doctoral studies in counseling psychology with a concentration in "Multicultural Counseling." Upon completing his doctoral work (1995), Dr. Torres was hired as an assistant professor for the Counseling and Educational Psychology Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. In 2002, he was hired by the University at Buffalo, SUNY, where he directed the School Counseling program in Singapore.
Dr. Torres’s personal heroes are a combination of political leaders and social activists, among whom are Don Pedro Albizú Campos, Dr. Emeterio Betances, Don Eugenio María De Hostos, Don Fidel Castro, Dr. Ernesto "Che" Guevarra, Doña Julia De Burgos, Doña Iris Rivera, Dr. Michael P. Wilbur and Dr. Janice Roberts-Wilbur.
Areas of Interest and Inquiry
Dr. Torres is interested in multicultural counseling, group work, chaos theory, liberation psychology, technology, supervision, multicultural counseling, prisons, and gang-related behavior. His primary research focuses on complexity and how indigenous healing techniques are a necessary ingredient when working with ethnic minority populations in the United States. Additional interests include the implications of social injustice and oppression in counseling with ethnic minorities, and in particular, with school age Latinos/Latinas in the United States. His work has appeared in the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, Journal of Counseling and Development, Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling, Radical Psychology Journal, Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, Intervention in School and Clinic Journal, Counselor Education and Supervision Journal, Journal for Specialists in Group Work, Journal of Psychological Practice, Educational Technology, Computers in the Schools, Counseling and Values Journal, Journal of Technology in Counseling, and the Canadian Journal of Counseling. He is also on the editorial boards of the Journal of Counseling and Development and the Journal for Specialists in Group Work.
Since 1995, Dr. Torres has presented papers at national and international conferences such as the American Counseling Association (ACA), the Association for Counseling Education and Supervision (ACES), the Association for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW), and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). His invited presentations include workshops in North Carolina, Washington, and New Hampshire. He is the recipient of the Best Group Research Article of the Year (March 2000), the National Defense Service Medal (February 1990), the Army Commendation Medal (November 1986), the Army Achievement Medal First Oak Leaf (August 1986), a minority doctoral fellowship at the University of Connecticut, and most recently, an award for social justice named the Ohana Award (March 2004).
Dr. Torres has written chapters for the Handbook of Group Counseling and Psychotherapy (DeLucia-Waack, Gerrity, Kalodner, & Riva, 2004) about working with Latinos/Latinas, indigenous healing approaches, and language implications in group counseling settings. He has also written a chapter for Teen Gangs: A Global View (Duffy & Gillig, 2004) about teenage gangs in Puerto Rico. He has provided consultation services to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Council in Nevada and, most recently, he directed the Graduate School of Education’s School Counseling Program in Singapore.
