Juan C. Jauregui, MSW, MPH is a PhD candidate in the Department of Social Welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. His research focuses on population mental health among LGBTQ+ populations, with particular attention to stigma, suicidality, and HIV care engagement. Grounded in social work and public health, his work examines how structural and psychosocial processes shape mental health outcomes across global and U.S. contexts using community-engaged, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches.

His dissertation, “Cuida Positivo: An Exploratory Study on Stigma, Mental Well-Being, and HIV Treatment Engagement Among Sexual and Gender Minority Young People Living with HIV in Peru”, draws on qualitative data to examine how structural stigma and social conditions shape mental health and HIV care engagement. This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health through the Fogarty UCGHI GloCal Health Fellowship and the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship. His work aims to advance community-based services and interventions that respond to the mental health and HIV care needs of vulnerable populations within resource-limited settings.

Throughout his doctoral training, Juan has advanced a global mental health research agenda that includes co-leading the launch of national surveys on LGBTQ+ youth mental health in Peru and the Philippines in collaboration with The Trevor Project. His work has been published in journals such as Global Public Health, Archives of Sexual Behavior, LGBT Health, and the American Journal of Community Psychology. He is a recipient of the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship and the NIMHD T37 LEAD Global Training Fellowship.

Prior to entering the doctoral program at UCLA, Juan earned his MSW and MPH from the University of Michigan, where he worked with the Resilience + Resistance Collective on LGBTQ+ mental health and sexual health projects in the United States, Kenya, Zambia, and the Dominican Republic. His professional background also includes research roles with the UCLA Adolescent Trials Network and as a trained crisis counselor with a national suicide prevention hotline.

Juan is a Mexican-American, first-generation college student. He earned his BS in Psychobiology from UCLA in 2017.

Selected Publications:

Jauregui, J. C., Hong, G., Garner, A., Howell, S., Holloway, I. W. (2025). Sexual Behavior, App Use, and Venue Comfort During COVID-19: A Global Study of Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men. The Journal of Sex Research, 1-7. doi: 10.1080/00224499.2025.2585071

Jauregui, J. C., Lewis, K. A., Moore, D. M., Ogunbajo, A., Odero, W., Wambaya, J., Onyango, D. P., Jadwin-Cakmak, L., Harper, G. W. (2025). “It kills the freedom or the spirit of people being who they are”: Impact of Sexuality-Based Stigma and Discrimination on the Lives of Gay and Bisexual Men in Kenya. Global Public Health, 20(1). doi: 10.1080/17441692.2025.2489713

Jauregui, J. C., Harper, G. W. (2025) LGBTQ+ Cultural Sensitivity Training for Mental Health Professionals in the United States. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 54, 1309-1315. doi: 10.1007/s10508-025-03132-3

León-Morris, F.D., Reyes-Diaz, E.M., Jauregui, J.C., Konda, K.A., Taylor, A.B., Jarrett, B.A., Lee, W.Y., Muñoz, G., & Nath, R. (2024). 2024 Perú national report on the mental health of LGBTQ+ young people. West Hollywood, California: The Trevor Project. Available at: https://thetrevorproject.org/survey-international/pe/2024/en/

Jauregui, J. C., Hong, C., Assaf, R. D., Cunningham, N. J., Krueger, E. A., Flynn, R., Holloway, I. W. (2024). Examining Factors Associated with Cannabis Use Among Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) and non-SGM Emerging Adults in California. LGBT Health. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2023.0050

Jauregui, J. C., Mwochi, C. R., Crawford, J., Jadwin-Cakmak, L., Okoth, C., Onyango, D. P., & Harper, G. W. (2021). Experiences of violence and mental health concerns among sexual and gender minority adults in western Kenya. LGBT Health, 8(7), 494-501. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2020.0495.