Miriam Georgina Valdovinos

Professor Valdovinos’ research and educational training in social welfare, psychology, global health, and gender studies inform the analytic techniques and methodologies she utilizes to address key mental health issues using interdisciplinary practices and theories. This approach centers on understanding mental health and health well-being for Latinx and Indigenous Latinx families, with a focus on culture and healing. Her faculty role at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) builds on 20 years of professional experience as an advocate for and with Latinx families, focusing on understanding the mental health and overall well-being of their families and children. She specifically focus on intimate partner violence (IPV) experiences and help-seeking for Latinx families. She is among a few U.S. scholars investigating how race, gender, social class, immigration status, and culture affect the mental health and health well-being of Latinas and Indigenous Latinas and their children who have experienced IPV while centering culture and healing. As an Indigenous Chicana, her research agenda shifts away from conventional analyses of how IPV survivors navigate social support systems by exposing the complexities of social support and limited access as well as how health and mental health effects may have dire embodied impacts.