Ana M. Ugueto, PhD, ABPP

Associate Professor
Louis A. Faillace, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston

Email:  Ana.Ugueto@uth.tmc.edu
Phone:  713-741-3941

Educational Philosophy

As an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at McGovern Medical School, one of my responsibilities is to educate students on child psychopathology and on evidence-based treatments.  Teaching and education is an essential, vital part of academic psychology, and one of my favorite aspects of my job. I find the opportunity to share the learning process with students both invigorating and enlightening, and relish the opportunity to teach students at different points in their careers. Teaching is more than simply lecturing on an important topic; it is an interactive experience designed to transform thinking, to encourage critical appraisal, and to reveal new concepts and areas of interest (Bonswell & Eison, 1991). My overarching goals for all my students are threefold: to assist students in the acquisition of knowledge, to help students integrate new information into existing knowledge structures, and to promote critical thinking. To facilitate these goals, I have employed a number of effective learning techniques aimed at creating an optimal learning environment, maintaining student interest, and encouraging information integration and synthesis.

In the lectures or courses I teach, I try to facilitate an open, friendly, and inspired environment.  Students learn best when they do not feel judged for their opinions and instead are encouraged to think creatively about different possibilities. To begin with, I often use humor to break the ice and set the tone of the class. I want the class to be informal, comfortable, and enjoyable.  I regularly praise students for asking questions and for sharing their hypotheses, and actively support lively peer discourse to increase understanding of a topic (Smith et al., 2009). I readily acknowledge when I don’t know an answer to showcase it’s acceptable to say, “I don’t know” in class, and then offer a guess or ask the students what they think to model critical thinking.  Furthermore, when teaching small groups, I sit at the table with my students, instead of standing at a podium, so I am more approachable, and routinely ask about their weekends or follow-up with them about other classes and exams so they know I am invested in them personally too.

To capture and sustain student interest, I strive to make all of my lectures as collaborative as possible. I often start a lecture with a quick “think-pair-share” activity (Lightner & Tomaswick, 2017) to engage students and to expedite participation. This gives students the opportunity to think about what they already know about the topics or what they would like to learn about it, share it with a peer and also learn about the peer’s interests, and then share it with the group. I find this is an easy way to get the group talking instead of just listening to what I have to say. Similarly, I also utilize discussion questions within my lectures to encourage students to share their thoughts and to formulate hypotheses about the topic.  Additionally, whenever possible, I use videos of real-life therapy sessions so students can see what CBT looks like “in–action” instead of just hearing about it, which brings the topics alive.

To help students integrate and synthesize new information in a meaningful way, it is important to promote problem-solving and critical thinking (Snyder & Snyder, 2008). To help students become active, not passive, recipients of knowledge, I employ discussion questions (Berge & Muilenberg, 2000) and ethical dilemmas (Latif, 1999) to spark thought-provoking conversations to prompt students to think more deeply about a topic. I often ask discussion questions which have no definitive answer, such as What are the implications of …. ?,” or “What are the pros and cons of ….?” so students can begin to apply what they are learning. Similarly, I ask questions about next steps (e.g., “Can we take this one step further?“) to place concepts in a larger context and help students see how psychology is a constantly advancing science and understand how unanswered questions lead to new investigations. Moreover, to further help students organize novel material into existing structures, I ask “How does this relate to your own experience?” so they can engage in personal exploration.  Additionally, instead of teaching students about ethics (since usually they were taught the basic principles in graduate or medical school), I often present ethical dilemmas of real-world scenarios I have encountered, and then ask the students, “So what would you do in this situation?”  to challenge students to connect what they are learning in the classroom to everyday events and to help develop moral reasoning. This leads to dynamic conversations about differences in cultures, income, laws, available resources, and many other important individual characteristics.

Area of Expertise/Interests

  • Supervising psychology graduate students and psychiatry residents in evidence-based psychological interventions
  • Mentoring medical students and psychology graduate students in research design
  • Increasing resident scholarly productivity

Academic and Administrative Appointments

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, 2010
William James University
Newton, MA

Research Associate, Department of Psychology, 2010 – 2012
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA

Research Associate, Department of International Health, 2012 – 2013
Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Baltimore, MD

Psychologist II, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 2014 – 2015
McGovern Medical School
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 2016 – present
McGovern Medical School
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Honors and Awards

UTHealth McGovern Medical School, “Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award,” 2018-      2019, 2019 – 2020, 2020 – 2021, 2021- 2022
UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences 2nd Year Child and Adolescent Fellows “Outstanding Faculty Educator,” 2018 – 2019
UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Office of Faculty Affairs Scholarship for “AAMC 2020 Early Career Women Leadership Seminar,” 2020
UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Psychology Predoctoral Internship “Outstanding Faculty Award,” 2019 – 2020
UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Office of Faculty Affairs Scholarship for “AAMC Leadership Development Seminar for Women in Medicine and Science,” 2021
UTHealth McGovern Medical School, “The Academy of Master Educators,” 2022
UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Psychology Predoctoral Internship “Outstanding Faculty Award in Research,” 2021 – 2022