Aprille Arena

Aprille Arena is a PhD student at the Graduate School of Social Work. She received her BS in psychology from Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts, and her MSW from the University of Maryland-Baltimore, where she specialized in behavioral health. Prior to becoming a social worker, Aprille taught yoga in a variety of settings and discovered that she wanted to help people work through trauma and loss in a clinical setting. Her post-MSW experience includes providing therapy and crisis intervention in outpatient settings, working on an Assertive Community Treatment team, and teaching undergraduate courses in psychology and human services programs. Aprille’s experience has influenced her research interests to help improve programs and policies for individuals with chronic and severe mental illness and she is interested in interagency/multidisciplinary approaches to treatment and research. Aprille is also interested in research that strives to advance policies that best support the needs of mothers, caretakers, and families, especially those in marginalized groups. With an eye toward program and policy improvements, Aprille hopes to utilize inclusive research methodologies that illuminate existing and emerging needs among these populations and enhance connections between clinical practice and research efforts in social work.

• MSW, University of Maryland-Baltimore