Natalie Grafft receives 2024-25 Dorothy Book Paper Award
Natalie Grafft is the 2024-25 recipient of the Dorothy Book Paper Award, which is given for the best paper produced by an SSW doctoral student in the previous calendar year.
Barbara Mendez Campos receives 2024-25 Doctoral Teaching Award
Barbara Mendez Campos is the 2024-25 recipient of the inaugural Doctoral Teaching Award, which celebrates the teaching abilities of our doctoral students as evidenced by student evaluations and their Teaching Philosophy Statements.
Christopher Baidoo receives 2024-25 Emerging Scholar Award
Christopher Baidoo is the 2024-25 recipient of the Emerging Scholar Award, given to an SSW PhD student who shows promise of being an excellent scholar as evidenced by research skills, collaboration, and/or conference presentations.
María Alejandra Gutiérrez Torres named Clough Center Fellow
Incoming doctoral student María Alejandra Gutiérrez Torres has been accepted as a Boston College Clough Center Fellow for the 2025-26 academic year.
The Clough Center funds Boston College students and faculty to facilitate their research and participation. Clough Doctoral Fellows attend a weekly seminar and contribute to the annual journal and spring symposium.
Erika Clairgue Caizero has paper accepted for publication in the Journal Especialidades
Erika Clairgue Caizero has had a paper accepted for publication in the Journal Especialidades.
Her paper, titled “Xenophobia and intersections in digital users’ discourses towards the Central American migrant caravan in Tijuana," will be printed in a special issue on International Migrations.
Oladoyin Okunoren successfully defends her dissertation
Oladoyin Okunoren successfully defended her dissertation on April 17.
The title of her dissertation is "Securitization as a Public Health Response: Consequences and Lessons Learned from the West Africa Ebola Outbreak of 2013-16."
Estefania Palacios has article accepted in Social Work
Estefania Palacios has had an article accepted in Social Work.
The title of the article is "Justice, Care, and Collaboration: An Innovative Framework for Social Work Supervision in Interdisciplinary Legal Practice."
Gabi Ortiz receives two national awards from NASPA
Gabi Ortiz has received two national awards from NASPA, the 2025 Mena Valdez Latinx Inclusion Award and the Gender and Sexuality Knowledge Community Intersectionality Inclusion Award, to recognize her work with the Queer and Trans Latinx Collective in Higher Education.
Ortiz will also present a poster at the upcoming 34th Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research (CAHR) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The presentation is titled “Anal cytology among trans women: Implications for cancer screening from the Montreal-Toronto Trans Study,” and will be presented with Dr. Ashley Lacombe-Duncan from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor SSW.
Barbara Mendez Campos publishes article in Frontiers in Public Health
Barbara Mendez Campos has co-authored an article that has been accepted by Frontiers in Public Health. The title of the article is "The equitable aging in health conceptual framework: international interventions infusing power and justice to address social isolation and loneliness among older adults."
Mendez Campos led the section on applying their framework to Mexican Indigenous initiatives, where the authors explored community-based and intergenerational approaches to reduce loneliness. The paper also highlights important work in other Indigenous, international, and U.S. communities, including initiatives for LGBTQ+ older adults, emphasizing the need for justice-centered, inclusive solutions that reflect the diverse experiences of these populations.
J.C. Hodges successfully defends his dissertation
J.C. Hodges successfully defended his dissertation on March 25.
The title of his dissertation is "Behavioral Health Help-Seeking among Puerto Rican Climate Migrants: The Role of Social Relationships."
Natalie Grafft successfully defends her dissertation
Natalie Grafft successfully defended her dissertation on March 19.
The title of her dissertation is "Fathers' adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and offspring health."
Haitisha Mehta has abstract accepted into the Scientific Program for the International Congress on Evidence-based Parenting Support.
Haitisha Mehta has had an abstract accepted into the Scientific Program for the International Congress on Evidence-based Parenting Support.
The title of her presentation is "Family-Based Intervention for Afghan Refugee Children and Youth: An Open Trial."
Megan Taylor delivers oral presentation at the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration conference
Megan Taylor delivered an oral presentation at the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration conference, which was held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in January.
Her presentation, titled "Economic Self-Reliance and Mental Health: Testing A Hybrid Entrepreneurship and Social-Emotional Learning Intervention for Venezuelan Crisis Migrant Youth in Bogotá, Colombia," featured research conducted with BCSSW's own Dr. María Piñeros-Leaño and fellow PhD student Gabi Ortiz, among other scholars.
The conference was attended by researchers, practitioners, and refugees from across the globe.
Christopher Baidoo successfully defends his dissertation proposal
Christopher Baidoo successfully defended his proposal on February 12. The title of his proposal is "Racialized facial features and the criminal legal system."
Baidoo was also recently awarded the Harvard Rappaport Public Policy Summer Fellowship, which he will complete this summer.
Haitisha Mehta gets new article accepted in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
Haitisha Mehta is the second author of a new article that was accepted in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.
The article is titled "Suicide prevention inpatient group treatment—A treatment development and feasibility study."
Patrick Mulkern co-authors new editorial
Patrick Mulkern has co-authored a new editorial with Dr. Maggi Price that was recently published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
The article is titled "Context Matters: Understanding the Role of Spatial and Temporal Factors in LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health."