Dr. Hernández is originally from Puerto Rico, is bilingual and has worked for 31 years in the health and human service field developing, implementing, and evaluating culturally and linguistically intelligent youth and adult health prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery support programs. Also, Dr. Hernández has many years of experience in delivering addiction counseling and clinical supervision to professionals in the field. Furthermore, he is a professional trainer and facilitator and provides individualized technical assistance and support to organizations that provide addiction prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery supports.
Haner is a person in long-term recovery from addiction and is committed to eliminating health disparities by working at the national, state, and local levels. He is currently a Senior Consultant to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, with a focus on disparities, building health equity, addiction treatment, recovery supports, and the Recovery Support Centers located throughout the Commonwealth. He also consults and teaches a number of courses at the New England Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) at Brown University and the National Latino and Hispanic Mental Health TTC. Dr. Hernandez was appointed to SAMHSA Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy (BRSS TACS) steering committee in 2014 and the Criminal Justice Policy Committee in 2018. He has served a consultant to several federally-funded initiatives in the areas of behavioral workforce development, HIV/AIDS, Substance Use Disorders prevention and treatment, military service members, their families and TBI and PTSD, and pediatric asthma. Dr. Hernández serves as faculty at the New England School of Addiction Studies since 1998, has taught a number of undergraduate and graduate courses, and has presented at several national and state conferences. Dr. Hernández serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Board for Voluntary Certification of Drug and Alcohol Counselors, is a member of the Board of the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery (MOAR), was appointed to the Springfield Public Health Council in 2006, and served on the Massachusetts Governor’s Latin American Advisory Commission in Massachusetts from 2000-2004.
Haner earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Services from Springfield College and a Master of Education with concentrations in Counseling Psychology and Addiction Studies from Cambridge College in Massachusetts. His doctoral degree was earned at the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His major was Community Health Education and his minor was Social Justice Education. In addition, Mr. Hernandez holds an advance Certification in Drug and Alcohol Counseling at the reciprocal level, is licensed in Massachusetts, and is a Certified Prevention Specialist.