2026 PhD Candidates
Author(s)
GSSW
Communication Team
Graduating University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work PhD candidates are ready to put their doctoral training to work as teachers and scholars who advance social work knowledge and social justice.
Sierra M. Roach Coye, MSW, LSW, LMSW
Sierra is a doctoral candidate at the University of Denver School of Social Work. As an intersectional environmental justice abolitionist her scholarship illuminates environmental racism's impact on health equity and psychological wellbeing within the Black community. Sierra centers Black voices throughout her research using culturally grounded mixed methods approaches and community engaged work. Sierra considers herself a scholar-clinician who weaves in alternative ways of knowing and embodiment within her clinical practice, pedagogy as well as her research.
Sierra is a multi-passioned social work higher education professional. Sierra has expansive experience in higher education at the undergraduate level as an academic advisor and curriculum evaluator. Sierra is passionate about universal design for learning and incorporating critical pedagogies into her teaching.
Clinically Sierra is cross licensed in the state of Colorado and Maryland. Sierra has extensive experience in a variety of clinical settings, with individuals across the lifespan. However, her passion lies in aiding children, adolescents and their families in life’s challenges and transitions. Sierra is passionate about culturally responsive care for people of the global majority.
-
Research interests/Areas of Emphasis
- Environmental justice
- Psychological Wellbeing
- Health equity
- Culturally responsive practice
- Human-animal connection
- Racial Trauma
-
Dissertation
- Black American Nature Connectedness & Subjective Wellbeing: An Intergenerational Mixed Methods Phenomenological Study Rooted in Black Liberation
-
Select grants, fellowships & awards
- University of Denver Graduate Education Doctoral Fellowship for Inclusive Engagement
- Scholar Strategy Network Policy Fellowship
- University of Denver Graduate Studies Doctoral Fellowship
-
Select presentations
- Roach Coye, S., (2023 November) Culturally Responsive Practice: Is Afrocentric Practice Just for Black Folks? [Invited Talk]. University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work, Denver, CO, United States.
- Roach Coye, S., Holloway, B., Hunte, O., Bender, K. (2024 October) Pedagogy of Care: Creating Communities of Care in the Classroom [Panel]. 2024 Council for Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting, Kansas City, MO, United States.
- Greenfield, J., Roach Coye, S., Holloway, B. (2025 January) ADHD, Autism, and Other Neurodivergence in Social Work Education: Recognizing and Supporting Neurodiversity in Our Classrooms and Research Teams [Panel]. Society for Social Work Research Conference, Seattle, WA, United States.
- Roach Coye, S., (2025 November) Decolonizing Environmental Justice: Centering Black and Indigenous Solutions to the Climate Crisis [Invited Talk]. Austrian Science Fund, University of Vienna.
- Select publications
- Mason, L. R., Coye, S. R., Rao, S., Krings, A., & Santucci, J. (2024). Environmental justice and social work: A study across practice settings in three U.S. states. Sustainability, 16(19), 8361. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16198361
- BlackDeer, A., & Roach Coye, S. (2025). Decolonizing Environmental Justice: Centering Black and Indigenous Solutions to the Climate Crisis. In T. Konrad (Ed.), Race and Environmental Justice in the Era of Climate Change and COVID-19 (pp. 207–231). Michigan State University Press.
- Roach Coye, S., To, M. N., & Walls, E. (In Press). Measurement Considerations for Liberatory Research. In M. Spencer, C. Daniel, E. Walls, & V. R. Winter (Eds.), Decolonizing Quantitative Methods: Anti-Oppressive Approaches to Social Work Research.
- Green, D., Stanzilis, K., Roach Coye, S., Sullivan, C. (2025) The Impact of Online Racism and Social Connectedness on Racial Trauma [Manuscript Submitted for Publication]. The Professional Counselor, Department of Counseling, University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
C. Riley Hostetter, MSW
C. Riley Hostetter (they/them) focuses on structural inequities in social service delivery and policy, centering the experiences of queer and transgender communities. Riley’s dissertation research investigates systemic inequities for queer and transgender young persons across foster care and homeless youth services, exploring the impacts of gender and sexual identity on the mental health outcomes, trajectories, and social networks of these youth. As a critically engaged scholar, Riley conducts community-engaged research alongside quantitative and theoretical analysis. With eight years of practice experience across child welfare and community behavioral health organizations, their professional background serves as groundwork for their research and teaching philosophies. Riley has an MSW from Portland State University, focusing on community-based practice and administrative leadership, and a BS in Psychology and Spanish from Iowa State University.
-
Research Interests/Areas of Emphasis
Queer & trans community
Foster care & child welfare
Young adult homelessness
Critical approaches to systems
Social welfare policy
-
Dissertation
- Exploring the Impact of Identity through Outcomes, Networks, and Ideals of Unhoused Queer and Transgender Former Foster Youth
-
Select grants, fellowships & awards
- University of Denver Graduate Education Doctoral Fellowship for Inclusive Engagement
- University of Denver Graduate Studies Doctoral Fellowship
- Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust Award Grant
-
Select presentations
- Hostetter, C. R., Pappas, G., Lenne, E., Spoth, A. P., Pitsker, J., & Anderson-Nathe, B. (2025, Jan. 15-19). Think of the Children: The State’s Weaponization of Transgender and Nonbinary Youth. [Roundtable Accepted for Presentation]. Society for Social Work & Research Annual Conference, Seattle, WA.
- Hostetter, C. R., Littman, D. M., Holloway, B. T., Dunbar, A. Z., Bender, K., & Sarantakos, S. (2023, Jan. 11-15). Conceptualizations of Mutual Aid During Covid-19: A Critical Analysis. [Paper Presentation]. Society for Social Work & Research Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ.
- Hostetter, C. R. (2021, Oct. 23-27). Experiences of Gender Identity Acceptance and Mental Health Among Transgender and Nonbinary persons. [Paper Presentation]. American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
- Christensen, C., Jeon, J. S., Hostetter, C. R., Doyle, M., & Kynn, J. (2025, July 1-4). Facilitators and Barriers to Sexual and Gender Minority Development: Addressing Accessibility and “Isms”, Building Collaborations, and Supporting Mental Health in Community-Based Organizations. [Paper Presentation]. Sexuality and Social Work International Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
-
Select publications
- Hostetter, C. R., Gerke, D., Call, J., Holloway, B. T., Atteberry-Ash, B., Greenfield, J., & Walls., N. E. (2021). “We are doing the absolute most that we can, and no one is listening”: Barriers and facilitators to health literacy within transgender and nonbinary communities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031229
- Holloway, B. T., Hostetter, C. R., Morris, K., Kynn, J., & Kilby, M. (2022). “We’re all we have”: The future of mutual aid from the perspectives of queer and trans individuals. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 50(1), 155-180. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol50/iss1/9
- Sonsteng-Person, M., Spoth, A. P., Hostetter, C. R., Akapnitis, I., Barbera, R., Joseph, A., Mackey, C., Garcia-Perez, J., & Hyde, C. (2023). A new world cannot be built alone: An abolitionist framework for collective action in social work. Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.52713/apsw.v1i1.18
- Seelman, K., Hostetter, C. R., Mynatt, E., & MacIntyre, G. (2025). “Medicine for the Soul”: LGBTQ+ Southerners spending time in nature during the COVID-19 Pandemic to Promote Well-Being. Journal of Applied Social Science.
Kristina Leilani Hulama
Kristina “Tina" Leilani Hulama (she/her) is a Native Hawaiian feminist scholar whose research interrogates how historical, structural, environmental, and contemporary forms of oppression shape health-seeking behaviors and outcomes, among Native communities and women. She is a licensed social worker with a BA and MSW in health from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and has more than a decade of experience in social services, including over three years of post-master’s practice in clinical social work, with plans to obtain clinical licensure by June 2026. Her scholarly trajectory is informed by the disproportionate morbidity and mortality experienced by Native Hawaiian women in Hawai’i’s healthcare system, shaped by persistent dismissal, disposability, and dehumanization in medical settings. These lived realities ground her commitment to examining healthcare structures that perpetuate inequities and to advancing frameworks oriented in justice, liberation, and healing. Her dissertation, situated within Critical Indigenous Feminism, Necropolitics, and Abolition Medicine, employs qualitative, mixed-methods, and arts-based approaches to theorize healthcare oppression and disseminate knowledge through Indigenous poetic forms.
-
Research Interests/Areas of Emphasis
Indigenous and Women’s Health Inequities and Disparate Outcomes
Healthcare Oppression: Intersectional Discrimination, Epistemic Injustice, and Medical Gaslighting
Historical Trauma and Healing
Environmental Justice
-
Dissertation
Weaving Decolonial and Critical Indigenous Feminist Methodologies: A Transformative, Mixed-Methods, and Arts-Based Study of Healthcare Oppression in Hawai’i
-
Select grants, fellowships & awards
- 2025 Hawai’i Pacific Foundation Doctoral Research Award
- 2024-2026 INSPIRE: Indigenous Substance Use and Prevention Interdisciplinary Research Doctoral Fellowship through the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute
- 2024-2026 University of Denver Graduate Education Doctoral Fellowship for Inclusive Engagement
- 2023-2026 Doctoral Fellow in the Council on Social Work Education’s Minority Fellowship Program
-
Select presentations
- Hulama, K. (2025, April). Epistemic (in)justice and reimagining healthcare in Hawai’i [Keynote panelist]. 22nd Hawai’i International Summit on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma Across the Lifespan, Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma (IVAT), Honolulu, HI, United States.
- Hulama, K. (2025, August). Experiences of epistemic (in)justice) and reimagining Hawai’i’s healthcare environment. 7th International Indigenous Voices in Social Work Conference. University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. August 2025.
- Hulama, K., Coats, T., Yoneyama-Sims, K., & Locke, S. (Accepted). Poetic medicine: An anthology to healthcare providers. Council of Social Work Education (CSWE) Annual Program Meeting Conference, Denver CO. October 2025.
- Hulama, K. (Accepted) Intersectional discrimination, epistemic Injustice, and medical gaslighting: A scoping review. American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting & Expo, Washington, D.C. November 2025.
-
Select publications
- Hulama, K., Coats, T., & Maxwell, D. (Under review). Intersectional Discrimination, Epistemic Injustice, and Medical Gaslighting: A Scoping Review. Hawai’i Journal of Health & Social Welfare.
- Hulama, K., Coats, T., & Maxwell, D. (Under review). Analyzing the Native Hawaiian Healthcare Improvement Act through an Intersectional Feminist Policy Analysis Framework. Hawai’i Journal of Health & Social Welfare.
- Malin, S.A., Beltrán, R., Luxton, I., Hulama, K., Nuñez-Solis, M. and Ravetta, E. (2025), “The Kids Ask ‘Are We Safe?’”: Oil Refining's Unjust Environmental Health Impacts on Children. Social Inq. https://doi-org.du.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/soin.70008
- Riley, L., Hulama, K., Tapu, I., Weightmann, A., Louis-Perkins, T., Kajiwara, C., Maldanado, K., & Ravida, M. (2024). US State and Territorial Indigenous Consultation Laws: A Potential Strategy to Improve the Social Determinants of Health. Public Health Reports. https://doi.org/10.1177/00333549241260636
Olivia H. Hunte, MSW
Olivia Hunte (she/they) is a Black queer femme dedicated to disrupting systems of oppression in society while centering pleasure and healing. Investigating the dynamics of power, privilege, and oppression shaping our realities, she is engaged in community-centered research with the intention of developing liberatory theoretical and practice frameworks promoting healing under the mentorship of Dr. Ramona Beltrán. As a current doctoral scholar within the Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) at the University of Denver, their current research centers on the intersectional sense of belonging experiences of Black LGBTQIA+ people. Olivia also holds over 5 years of experience as an adjunct instructor and facilitates the learning of students within GSSW and the Department of Social Work at Metropolitan State University of Denver. When she is not galavanting the halls of academia, Olivia can be found nurturing relationships and pouring into her creative practice. They also curate the literary zine, Intersections, an avenue to amplify counternarratives and capture the active reimagining of possibilities beyond the confines of oppressive realities.
-
Research Interests/Areas of Emphasis
Qualitative and quantitative community-engaged participatory research in the following areas:
Black LGBTQIA+ People & Experiences
Black Feminisms and Intersectionality
Racial Healing Justice
Belonging & Social Connectedness
Healing & Liberatory Praxis
-
Dissertation
Beyond Liminality: A Grounded Theory Reorientation to Black LGBTQIA+ Sense of Belonging Centering Sovereignty
-
Select grants, fellowships & awards
- Community-Engaged Fellowship Program (2024-2025)
Center for Community Engagement to Advance Scholarship and Learning (CCESL)University of Denver- Graduate Community of Practice Program (2023-2024)
- Center for Community Engagement to Advance Scholarship and Learning (CCESL)
University of Denver- Graduate Studies Doctoral Fellowship $4,500
University of Denver, Graduate School of Social Work -
Select presentations
- Hunte, O. On Witnessing. (2024, October). CounterClockwise: Moving From Queer Trauma to Healing. Field Therapy, Virtual Workshop, 2024
- Ballesteros, D., Brown-Manning, R., Desir., M., Hunte, O., Jemal, A., Mehrotra., G., & Melendez, D. (2023, October). A Space to Breathe: Cultivating Collective Healing Practices for Women of Color within Academia. Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) 69th Annual Program Meeting, Atlanta, GA
- Castor, M. & Hunte, O. (2021, October). Leading Beyond White Supremacy. Continuing Education Civic Series. Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver, Denver, CO Virtual Training/Workshop
- Mora, F., Hunte, O. (2020, September). Intersectional Growth Mindset for Serving First-Generation Students. Council for Opportunity in Education 39th Annual Virtual Conference
-
Select publications
- Beltrán, R., Valdovinos, M., Hunte, O., Vanegas, I., Hulama, T., & To, MN (2025). “To heal every little wound”: Reconnecting, reclaiming, and revitalizing cultural traditions in U.S.-based Indigenous Peoples of Mexico. In Latine Lived Religions and Religious Identities: ¡Presente! (La Ponte, E. & De la Torre, M., Eds).
- To, M. N., Beltrán, R., Dunbar, A. Z., Valdovinos, M. G., Pacheco, B. A., Barillas Chón, D. W., Hunte, O., & Hulama, K. (2023). “Like Water, We Re-Member: A Conceptual Model of Identity (Re) formation through Cultural Reclamation for Indigenous Peoples of Mexico in the United States.” Genealogy, 7(4), 90.
- Jemal, A., Melendez, D., Hunte, O., Ballesteros, D., & Mehrotra, G. R. (2023). From the Margins to the Center: Cultivating Collective Healing with Soulcial Work Praxis. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 93(2-4), 130-159.
- Scherrer, K. S. & Hunte, O. (2022). Social work practice with the bisexual community. In M. Dentato (Ed.) Social Work Practice with the LGBTQ Community: The Intersection of History, Health, Mental Health and Policy Factors (2nd Edition). Oxford University Press.
Sarah Ann Sullivan (she/they)
Sarah is a doctoral candidate that focuses on weight stigma, eating disorders, and body image. Weight stigma is a highly prevalent and often overlooked social problem with deleterious consequences for people’s health (e.g., treatment delay, lower quality care) and mental health (e.g., diminished well-being, disordered eating). While weight stigma is well-established as a social justice issue with harmful consequences, research about potential solutions is still in the early stages of development. Sarah’s work primarily centers interventions to reduce weight stigma, which they have facilitated among MSW students, foster parents, medical students, and MSW interns, and studied the impacts of these interventions with MSW and medical students. Sarah has an MA in Sociology from the University of Missouri and brings a sociological, theoretically informed lens to their work. She has also earned BAs in Psychology and Sociology from Duquesne University.
-
Research interests/Areas of emphasis
Weight stigma interventions
Cultural perceptions of health
Health disparities and stigma
-
Dissertation title
Educating towards Weight-Inclusivity: A Multi-Method Exploration of Weight Stigma Interventions
-
Selected grants/ awards:
- Graduate School of Social Work Inclusive Engagement Fellowship, 2024-2026
- Dr. Paul Ernsberger Research Scholarship, 2023
- Best Poster Presentation, International Weight Stigma Conference, 2023
- Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award, 2018
-
Selected publications:
- Harrop, E. N., Sullivan, S. A., Advani, S. S. & Ahmed, S. (In Press) Body liberation and social justice approaches to body image. In J. Webb, T. Tylka, M. Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, & R. Rodgers (Eds.), Handbook of Body Image (3rd ed.). Guilford.
- Harrop, E. N., Norling, H., Sullivan, S. A., Kline, K. M. (2025). “Recover—but not too much”: Experiences of weight stigma in higher levels of care for eating disorders. International Journal for Eating Disorders. doi.10.1002/eat.24451
- Kale, R., Harrop, E. N., Kelly, J., Sullivan, S. A, & Sonneville, K. R. (2025). Addressing weight-related bullying in schools: Youth perspectives on school policies and interventions. Journal of School Health. doi.10.1111/josh.70054
- Conner, C. T., & Sullivan, S. A. (2023). A queer kind of stigma. In D. vom Lehn, W. Gibson, & N. Ruiz-Junco (Eds.), People, technology, and social organization: Interactionist studies of everyday life. Routledge. doi.org/10.4324/9781003277750
-
Selected presentations:
- Sullivan, S. A., Harrop, E. N., Smith, E., & Holloway, B. Prevalence, disability, and mental health correlates with eating disorders in trans-nonbinary Coloradans [Accepted Poster]. Society for Social Work Research, Washington, DC, January 2026.
- Harrop, E. N., Sullivan, S. A., Hulama, T., Mulligan, G., Etsell, K., Oshman, L., Sonneville, K., & Erlanger, L. Weight bias in medical students: Piloting a critical consciousness-based weight-inclusive intervention [Accepted Poster]. Society for Social Work Research, Washington, DC, January 2026.
- Smith E. K., Sullivan, S. A., Harrop, E. N. Weight stigma as a barrier to healthcare access among transgender and gender diverse adults [Accepted Flash Talk]. Society for Social Work Research, Washington, DC, January 2026.
- Sullivan, S. A., Harrop, E. N., Smith, E., & Holloway, B. Prevalence, Disability, and Mental Health Correlates with Eating Disorders in Trans-Nonbinary Coloradans [Accepted Oral Presentation]. Council on Social Work Education, Denver, CO, October 2025.
