International Faculty
Silvia Barragan
Dianne Ciro
PhD, LCSW is an Assistant Professor in the SDSU School of Social Work. Her research is centered around understanding the psychosocial and sociocultural factors associated with the sequelae of trauma and adversity in Latinx communities, in order to inform the development and refinement of interventions to be culturally-responsive in treating co-occurring trauma-related mental health and substance use disorders in Latinx youth and families in the U.S. and internationally. In particular, she has examined how different Latinx communities cope with their trauma exposure, and the internal and external resources that support their post-traumatic growth and resilience. She has also examined how these relationships vary by level of acculturation, and more recently within the context of migration.
David W. Engstrom
PhD, MA is an Associate Professor in the School. His research focuses on immigration policy and services to immigrants and refugees. Dr. Engstrom has written extensively on the plight of vulnerable immigrant populations, such as torture survivors and trafficked person and has been a keynote speaker at international conferences speaking on human rights and corruption. Dr. Engstrom founded the MSW Thailand Summer Internship Program in 2002 and has supervised nearly 84 students in internships ranging from child welfare to human trafficking to mental health. With Dr.Loring Jones, he co-created the Thailand Semester Abroad Program in 2008. He has been a visiting professor at the Faculty of Social Administration at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand and has taught it its PhD program for many years. As part of his role as the Coordinator for International Programs at the School of Social Work, Dr. Engstrom has set up collaborations with academic institutions in Mexico and Germany.
Dahlia Fuentes, Ph.D
Mario Garrett
PhD, has worked with all three longitudinal from-birth databases sponsored by the British government. As the team leader of a United Nations Population Fund, and as the Program Manager/ Director of Programs with the United Nations International Institute on Aging, Dr. Garrett coordinated a five-year project looking at support for the elderly in the People’s Republic of China. Since 1995, Dr. Garrett has been working exclusively with national American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations.
Loring Jones
DSW, is a Professor in the School. He has extensive teaching, research, and practice experience focused in the areas of the social welfare of children and international social services. His research in Thailand has included an investigation of recruitment for human trafficking. For the past seven years he has accompanied SDSU students to Thailand on their annual summer study tour. This experience has given him extensive knowledge of Thai culture, health care, social services, economics, and language.
Amanda Lee, LCSW
Eileen Pitpitan, Ph.D
María Luisa (‘Mari’) Zúñiga, PhD
PhD, is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work. She is an epidemiologist who conducts Community-Based Participatory Research to study the intersection of alcohol and drug use, mental health, sexual risk behaviors and self-care practices that contribute to poor health among diverse, vulnerable populations. Dr. Zúñiga specializes in the health of populations living in the U.S.-Mexico border region and in transnational health. She has worked extensively with Latinos living with HIV, U.S. Latino immigrant populations, and international and domestic migrants and their families in the U.S. and Mexico. Ongoing research on substance use, migration and health (PI: Zúñiga, Health Initiative of the Americas) indicates changes in mental health and drug and alcohol use practices in the context of migration and family separation among Latino immigrants from Yucatán, México. Dr. Zúñiga maintains strong research ties and student training collaborations in the states of Yucatán and Baja California, México.
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