Gena Castro Rodriguez

Professor Gena Castro Rodriguez is a psychologist and licensed marriage and family therapist (CA #49717) who holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Sacramento State University, a master’s in counseling psychology from the University of San Francisco, and a doctorate in clinical psychology from the California Institute for Integral Studies. In clinical private practice, she specializes in trauma and young women using a control mastery and relational framework.

Professor Castro Rodriguez has worked with children and youth in the dependency, delinquency, and criminal justice systems for the last twenty-five years. She was the co-founder and executive director of the Youth Justice Institute. Her professional interests are in the areas of trauma, female delinquency, cultural humility, victimology, and gender responsivity. She has written in the areas of trauma, delinquency, LGBT youth, and vicarious trauma, including her doctoral dissertation, entitled The relationship between sexual trauma and risk-taking behavior for African American and Latina Girls.

• Juvenile Justice
• Victims of Crime
• Trauma

• Trauma
• Female delinquency
• Cultural humility
• Victimology
• Gender responsivity

• Co-Chair, Close Juvenile Hall Work Group San Francisco
• Advisory Board Member, California Judicial Council, Family and Juvenile Law Committee
• Member, Family Violence Council, San Francisco
• Member, Mayor's Task Force on Human Trafficking, San Francisco

• California Institute for Integral Studies, Psy.D. Clinical Psychology 2014
• University of San Francisco, MA Counseling Psychology, 2004
• California State University Sacramento, BA in Psychology 1992

• Chief of Victim Services Division, San Francisco District Attorney's Office
• Private Practice Psychotherapy, San Francisco
• Post Doc, San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group
• Co-Founder & Executive Director, Youth Justice Institute
• Director of Survivor Policy, Training and Resource Center for Prosecutors Alliance California

• End Violence Against Women International Champion of Change Award Winner; 2020
• Award for Excellence in Victims Services, San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, San Francisco; 2018
• Outstanding Advocate for Human Dignity & Freedom Award, National Council of Jewish Women, San Francisco; 2018
• Women’s History Month Honoree, San Francisco Board of Supervisors; 2016

• Castro Rodriguez, G. 2020 Victim Impact Survey Report. San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, Victim Services Division.
• De La Rue, L., Ortega, L. and Castro Rodriguez, G. (2019). We Are Humans Too: Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Victim Advocates. Manuscript submitted for publication.
• Bass, P. and Castro Rodriguez, G. (2018). Burnout: Pediatrician, heal thyself. Modern Medicine Network.Contemporary Pediatrics.
• Castro Rodriguez, G. (2014). Trauma and Delinquency: A Qualitative Study of the Relationship Between Sexual Trauma and Juvenile Delinquency for African American and Latina Girls. (Doctoral Dissertation). California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA.