María Elena Medina-Mora Icaza

Medina-Mora Icaza is an expert in mental health, addiction, and is a faculty member of UNAM’s medical and psychology departments. Furthermore, she has been working with the Mexican government since 2003. She was the director of the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente Muñiz and worked with the Secretary of Health from 2008-2018. The day after stepping down from the director position at the National Institute of Psychiatry, she was promoted to the coordinator position. In addition, as of 2019, she is the director of the mental health and psychiatric department at UNAM.

María Elena Medina-Mora Icaza (born 3 October 1951) is a Mexican researcher and psychologist. Medina-Mora Icaza was inducted into El Colegio Nacional on 6 March 2006.

Medina-Mora Icaza was born on 3 October 1951, in Mexico City. She obtained her primary education at the Colegio Francés del Pedregal from 1955-1961. She attended Palos Verdes & Margate School for junior high school from 1962-1963. She then returned to the French College of Pedregal for high school (1964-1970). Following high school, she obtained licensure to practice social and clinical psychology (1970-1974). Once licensed, she obtained her Bachelor of Psychology (1976) and her Masters in Psychology (1979) at the Ibero-American University. In 1993, she obtained her Ph.D. in social psychology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and later received an honorary Ph.D. from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (2009).