Biographic Sketch

Dr. Mata's original research began with exploring and describing Mexican-American youth involvements with "street life---gang and drug use patterns in midwestern blue collar community". Later field studies involved Oakland, Ca; East Los Angeles, Ca; Austin, TX and rural South Texas communities of Dilley & Pearsall, TX. His more recent efforts have been concerned with national and state policies concerning health and human services. Professor Mata for the HR Department teaches:

Strategies for Change; Current Problems; Grant Writing; Qualitative Research; Non for Profits and Voluntary Action Orgs; Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention; the Gangs, Drugs and Violence and HIV/AIDS seminars. Dr. Mata, formerly a senior advisor and research sociologist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is currently a Professor in the Department of Human Relations.

The past decade he and his colleagues at UH, UTSA and PAHO have completed two major study of gangs, drugs and violence. The first dealing with among high risk delinquent youth in South Texas; the second on I P V among high risk delinquent youth and the third on drug use in border cities based on social indicator data.

He has served on the Presidential Commission on HIV Epidemic, as a staff member. In the past and present, he has served on various planning, grant and workgroups with the Office of the Surgeon General, Office of Minority Health, Administration for Families, Youth and Children, the Office for Substance Abuse Prevention, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Las t year served as a visiting scientist at the Pan American Health Organization El Paso Field Office.

He has served as a board member as the Governor's Designee on the state's Drug Abuse Policy Board, on the Secretary of State Volunteerism Committee, and Ryan White HIV Advisory Committee. He has served on major foundation grant review committees of the Magic Johnson Foundation, COSSMHO, National Community Aids Partnership, and The National March Of Dimes' Professional Services Advisory Boards.

His original research began exploring and describing Mexican-American youth involvements with "street life---gang and drug use patterns in midwestern blue collar community". Later field studies involved Oakland, CA; East Los Angeles, CA; Austin, TX and rural South Texas communities of Dilley & Pearsall, TX. His more recent efforts have been concerned with national and state policies concerning health and human services. The past four years with colleagues at UTSA, he is completing a major three year study of gangs, drugs and violence among high risk delinquent youth in South Texas.

His research is oriented to improving our knowledge to curb, control and ameliorate conditions facing our respective communities. His efforts to promote cooperative and collaborative research and demonstration projects concerning drug abuse are well known and acknowledged by his colleagues in academia and among policymakers in state and federal agencies.

Dr. Mata was born in El Paso and has been a resident of Lawton since 1965. Upon graduating in 1967 from Lawton High School, he attended Cameron Jr. College and the following year transferred to OU. He graduated from OU with a BA in 1970 and Master degree in 1971. He was awarded a fellowship to complete doctoral work at Notre Dame. Upon completing his doctoral work at Notre Dame in 1978, he went to on to teach at UNI in Chicago, UC Berkeley, UWM in Milwaukee, UT Austin and returned to OU in 1991. Also, he has held Post-doctoral fellowships at University of Michigan's ICPRS and ISR's CNMS program; UCLA's Community Mental Health Evaluation program; and UTHSC-Houston's Center for Health Promotion and Prevention