Dr. Contreras-Byrd is a retired New Jersey state licensed psychologist with over 35 years of clinical practice. She specializes in meeting the psychological, and spiritual needs of all women, and both men and women of color. Dr. Contreras-Byrd’s general areas of expertise involve issues of class, gender, ethnicity and faith; while her clinical areas of expertise are Major Depression and Anxiety Disorders.

A graduate of Rutgers University (NCAS), The Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology (Rutgers), and the Princeton Theological Seminary; her seminary thesis involved the development of a psycho-spiritual approach to treating Major Depression in Christian women.

She has worked as a school psychologist in urban and suburban districts; a clinical psychologist for juvenile offenders, homeless men, and adult substance abusers. Dr. Contreras-Byrd has directed programs for bilingual preschoolers and the intellectually gifted. She has been a professor of Psychology, Pastoral Counseling, Multicultural Counseling and Black Studies at Alliance Graduate School of Counseling & The Doctor of Ministry programs at Drew University and New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

For six years she served as the Special Services Advisor to the Office of the Dean of Students at Princeton University where she developed, implemented and/or supervised programming directed at meeting the social, cultural, academic and emotional needs of Asian, Black, Latinx and Native American undergraduate students. She also served as interim Director of the Third World Center at Princeton University (Now renamed the Carl Fields Center), as well as director of the Princeton University Minority Affairs Adviser Program.

For six years she served as a consultant psychologist and clinical supervisor for LifeTies Inc. of Trenton and Ewing, N.J. working with teen populations with backgrounds of abuse & neglect, and those who were “medically fragile” or gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, trans-gendered or questioning.

Dr. Contreras-Byrd has appeared on local radio and television stations, and served as lecturer, preacher, work-shop facilitator or key note speaker for numerous corporations, diverse community, religious and educational organizations throughout the United States, Africa and Latin America. She served as Dean of the AME Ministerial Institute in the Dominican Republic District (which includes Cuba and Brazil); and was an elected member of the Board of The Association of Theological Schools. She has been a consistent presenter for The Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race, The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, The Hispanic Theological Initiative and a lecturer or the Hampton Ministers Conference.

She is a writer and poet and has published many articles and three books, She is a poet, an ordained Elder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the mother of two daughters, the Rev Kamaria Milagros Byrd McAllister and Alexa Esperanza Byrd, a vocalist and recording artist. She has joined her husband, the then Rev. Vernon R Byrd Jr. in pastoral ministry for some 30 years. Upon his recent election of Bishop, she now serves as Episcopal Supervisor of the 17th Episcopal District of the AME Church in 6 countries in Central Africa.