Javier Saenz '56
2003 Alumnus of the Year

Javier Saenz is a social psychologist with more than 40 years of professional experience. He has provided services to outpatients, alcohol and substance abuse patients, and those with chronic mental illness. He has also developed and administered a hospitalization and human services training program for the community mental health system in Salt Lake City, where he lives and practices.

Now retired from the community mental health system, he continues his private clinical practice where he provides psychological assessments and treatment. He also continues clinical and administrative consultations to local organizations, and serves as an activist for ethnic minorities in the Salt Lake City area and the Southwest.

After graduating from DWU, Saenz earned a master's degree in psychiatric social work from the University of Utah in 1958. In 1974, he received a doctorate in social psychology, also from the University of Utah.

He is a trustee for Intermountain Health Care and is a member of American Group Psychotherapy Association, American Psychological Association, National Association of Social Workers, Registry of Certified Group Psychotherapists and the Utah Psychological Association.

He received the Golden Key Award presented by the Utah Governor's Committee for Employment of People with Disabilities in 1988. He served on the University of Utah's Chicano Scholarship Fund Committee; received the National Council of Community Mental Health Center's Minority Program Award; the Utah State Chicano of the Year award for his outstanding contribution in the field of health; and the American Academy of Human Services Outstanding Professional in Human Services award.

Saenz and his wife, Karol, have four grown children and live in Salt Lake City.