Faculty and Staff
Faculty

Assistant Professor
Psychology Training Director
Dr. Melanie Longhurst is an assistant professor, licensed clinical psychologist, and psychology training director in the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Longhurst is also the site training director for the El Paso Psychology Internship Consortium (EPPIC).
Dr. Melanie Longhurst is an assistant professor, licensed clinical psychologist, and psychology training director at Texas Tech Health El Paso. She holds an M.Ed. in counseling from the University of Texas at El Paso. She completed a pre-doctoral internship and a post-doctoral fellowship in primary care/health psychology at the Southern Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS) in San Antonio. She joined the Texas Tech Health El Paso Department of Psychiatry faculty in 2018. Her primary clinical and research interests include the intersection of physical health and mental health concerns, integrated care, wellness, and multicultural issues, particularly those impacting Mexicans/Mexican Americans. She has a strong interest in training future clinicians in the provision of services to underserved populations, such as the people of her hometown of El Paso. Her long-term career goals include expanding the presence of primary care behavioral health integration services and services for oncology patients in the El Paso community and building a body of research examining the impact of integrated care and wellness interventions.

Assistant Professor
Psychology Fellow Training Director
Dr. Erika Pereda is an Assistant Professor and licensed clinical psychologist at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. She serves as the program director for our fellowship post-doc program and supports other training programs within the Psychiatry Department.

Assistant Professor
Psychology TCHATT Training Director
Dr. Angelica Dominguez is an assistant professor and licensed psychologist. She provides outpatient psychotherapy services to adults and children, as well as clinical supervision for the psychology trainees in the Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT) program. Dr. Dominguez also enjoys providing teaching experiences and clinical supervision to psychiatric trainees.
Dr. Dominguez is a native El Pasoan. She received her Psy.D. from Our Lady of the Lake University, her M.S. from UT San Antonio, and her B.A. from UT Austin. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Texas Tech and a pre-doctoral internship with the El Paso Psychology Internship Consortium (EPPIC). She is thrilled to be back in her hometown to serve her community at this time. Her clinical and research interests include positive psychology, the intersection of physical health and mental health concerns, Spanish/bilingual therapy and multicultural issues, eating disorders, and substance use disorders. Dr. Dominguez has a passion for working with historically underserved populations, and for providing clinical training to future clinicians of the region.
Staff

Sr. Mental Health Clinician
EAP Director
Monica is a Senior Mental Health Clinician licensed in the state of Texas with 16 years of experience providing in-person and online mental health and behavioral counseling for children, adolescents, and adults. She joined the Department of Psychiatry at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso in 2023 after working in the TTUHSC Pediatric Department for 15 years. She provides therapy services through the Texas Tech Health El Paso Employee and Resident Assistance Programs, the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium (TCMHCC) and the Texas Youth Depression and Suicide Research Network (TXYDSRN). The programs include PeriPan, which provides perinatal mental telehealth services, Rural TelePsych for Youth (RTY), which provides services to children and their parents in areas within Texas where they don’t have access to mental health providers, and Activ8: Behavioral Activation Strategies for Teens, which is a brief telehealth program targeted at improving depression. She also provides patient care to adults, adolescents and children through the Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic.
Monica is a native El Pasoan who has lived in other parts of Texas, but returned to raise her children in El Paso. She received a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Texas at El Paso and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University. Her career before becoming a counselor included working in manufacturing, and in several business and marketing positions at corporations including Motorola, Procter & Gamble, and American Airlines. Her varied experience has enhanced her skills as a therapist to create an open and safe environment where thoughts and feelings can be shared without fear of judgement, with empathy and an analytical point of view. She uses a variety of modalities but is partial to Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD (CPT).

Sr. Mental Health Clinician
Steven Dabbs is a Sr. Mental Health Clinician at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. He provides counseling services to the public at our outpatient clinic and supports other training programs within the Psychiatry Department.
