Meet Our Students

Currently, I work for Global TIES for Children, where I use evidence-based data to evaluate educational programs that promote early childhood education in emergency and conflict zones.

My programmatic work involves utilization of task sharing models to address mental health disparities among marginalized communities in New York City with specific focus on participatory action research and capacity sharing framework. One of my active projects focus on gender inequity and domestic violence prevention in the South Asian American Muslim community.

Layla’s research interests focus on the exploration of sociocultural factors that influence mental health in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Specifically, she is interested in assessing how some sociocultural practices and beliefs may increase the risk of mental illness, while others serve as a protective factor, particularly among women with experiences of depression and anxiety. This research would allow for a culturally informed approach towards tailoring interventions that are attuned to the specific context. Layla is also interested in assessing how mental health policies may be strengthened in order to improve mental health provisions, and to foster equitable access to mental health services in the UAE.

Brianna Amos is a licensed social worker in the state of New Jersey and a doctoral student at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work. Brianna’s research interests are rooted in understanding mental health disparities in Black communities. She is specifically interested in the cultural stigma surrounding mental health in Black communities and how these beliefs and attitudes can influence engagement with mental health services and mental health outcomes. She is also interested in community-based research to develop interventions that address mental health disparities by improving treatment access and retention.

Moiyattu has 15 years of clinical experience and leadership with community-based organizations working with women and girls across Africa and the U.S. She Co-Founded the nonprofit organization Girls Empowerment Sierra Leone. Her research interests include using community-based participatory research to support communities with histories of trauma and gender based violence in developing strategies that work to improve outcomes. Her long-term goal is to use mixed methods to develop and test community-level culturally relevant interventions that foster mental health and wellbeing for adolescent girls and young women in Africa. Her secondary research interests include improving the mental health of refugee and first-generation immigrant African adolescents and youth in the U.S.. As a doctoral student, Moiyattu works with the Youth and Young Adult Mental Health Group at Silver on a variety of projects. In recognition for her work in Sierra Leone, Moiyattu was named one of the 'Top 100' African women making an impact in the lives of women and girls by Okay Africa. Moiyattu was also selected as part of the NYU Urban Doctoral Fellowship, a highly competitive fellowship that fosters collaboration and scholarly discourse among a diverse group of faculty and students engaged in urban research. She was also selected to be part of the renowned Program for Research on Black Americans at University of Michigan. Before arriving at NYU, Moiyattu was an adjunct professor at Temple University Gender Studies department and Columbia University School of Social Work.

Daniel Baslock is a licensed clinical social worker and licensed alcohol and drug counselor in the state of Vermont, and a PhD Student at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work. Prior to beginning the PhD journey, Daniel worked in rural community based mental health and substance use treatment programs providing clinical supervision, direct intervention, and strengthening community partnerships to enhance immediate access to mental health and substance use treatment. His practice experience directly informs his research which he hopes will result in improved access to evidence-based, judgment free care for people with co-occurring disorders, reduced stigma of drug use, and greater health equity in rural areas.

Sabrina Cluesman’s interest in research with queer and transgender youth and HIV prevention is rooted in both personal and professional experiences. Prior to joining NYU as a doctoral student, I spent 20 years in direct social work practice working primarily with queer and transgender youth and emerging adults ages 13-29 years.

My research agenda aims to advance the science of HIV and substance use prevention. My NIDA-funded F31 dissertation study explores questions related to the connections between gender minority stress and substance use behaviors and how these may impact preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) outcomes. I also have an interest in understanding how resilience factors (e.g., gender affirmation) might moderate these relationships. I will focus on the experiences of gender minority youth and emerging adults 13-24 years of age who identify as transgender and gender-expansive (e.g., gender non-binary, non-conforming, genderqueer), including those who identify as Black and/or Latinx.

I am currently training to be a strong mixed methodologist focused on understanding intersections in HIV prevention and substance use behaviors with transgender and gender-expansive young people. In the future, I plan to expand on this work by conducting longitudinal and intervention studies focused on these and adjacent populations, to shape policy, interventions, and practice.

Julian Cohen-Serrins is a PhD student and licensed clinical social worker. His research is located within the fields of micro-organizational behavior and occupational social work. Julian’s interests specifically relate to burnout, organizational justice, implementation science, and shared trauma. His current research centers on organizational conceptualizations and solutions to burnout, as well as how organizational justice and support relate to burnout. Julian has also recently conducted research on the impact of shared traumatic stress among clinicians working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before pursuing a PhD, Julian had worked in a range of mental health and social service settings in roles that included organizational development, supervision/management, and clinical social work. This included helping to establish Philadelphia’s only co-occurring partial hospitalization program for Medicaid funded adults and working on a CDC funded pilot project to holistically increase access to PrEP and social services for the local LGBTQ community.

Gerri K. Connaught, LMSW is a fourth-year PhD doctoral student, NYC Reducing Inequality (RIN-NYC) Fellow, and graduate adjunct instructor at the Silver School of Social Work whose research and clinical practice focuses on the intersections of race and wellness equities. Her clinical experience includes working with adults, young adults, military veterans, and various student populations (e.g., first generation college students, student veterans, adult learners) with issues such as anxiety, depression, trauma, life transitions, stress management, and impostor syndrome. Gerri also serves as a Peer Advocate and Consultant for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) office at the NYU Silver School of Social Work. In this role, Gerri helps students of color navigate their academic journeys and explores DEI best practices to help students of color thrive in academia. Gerri’s research interests include examining the structural ways in which higher education institutions contribute to feelings of imposter phenomenon among students of color, particularly in social work education, and how this impacts their mental health and sense of self.

Jacqueline (Jackie) Cosse is a PhD Student and psychodynamically-trained social worker interested in the role of race, gender, and sexuality in the historical criminalization of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the United States. Jackie’s primary focus is the study of U.S. policies that mandate state intervention in situations of IPV (e.g. mandatory arrest). Jackie’s research aims to explore the connection between state intervention and the arrest/incarceration of survivors whose methods of survival are deemed illegal by the state. Furthermore, her work aims to examine the role white hegemony and cisheterosexism play in determining which methods of survival are afforded “legitimacy” in the eyes of the law. Jackie has worked with survivors for over ten years and holds a deep commitment to uplifting the narratives of BIPOC, trans, queer, disabled, and immigrant survivors in research.

Yuanyuan Hu is a PhD Candidate at New York University Silver School of Social Work and a licensed clinical social worker in New York State. Yuanyuan’s area of interest is related to the implementation of strategies to integrate mental health services and non-mental health settings for underserved older adults, especially older Asian immigrants. Prior to attending the PhD program, Yuanyuan had extensive experiences as a clinical social worker providing mental health treatment and social services to older adults. Her professional experiences and research training have helped her develop a deep understanding of the impact of socioeconomic factors on their health and mental health issues among Asian American older adults and motivated her to focus on the possibilities to expand health and mental health care access by integrating health and mental health services into social service settings.

Tessa Jones is a PhD candidate at the NYU Silver School of Social Work. Her research interests include examining the pathways that perpetuate health inequities for persons living with serious illnesses. Currently, she works closely with the NYU nursing school on Aliviado Dementia Care, a 25-site pragmatic clinical trial that aims to improve care quality for persons living with dementia and their care partners in hospice. Tessa is an NYU Zelda Foster Studies Program Fellow in Palliative and End-of-Life Care. She has over 5 years of clinical experience in hospice, grief and bereavement, and palliative care social work.

Fatima Mabrouk is a social worker, and equity advocate researcher. Her work is grounded in centering on historically underrepresented Black women social workers who experience racial microaggressions in the social work workplace. She intends to focus on the stressful effects of microaggressions, a form of subtle discrimination. For her outstanding leadership and unwavering commitment to service, Fatima was awarded the 2nd Annual CUNY Women’s Recognition Award. Her passion for civil rights and social justice issues has provided her with opportunities for her research on the intersections of work performance and microaggressions among people of color in the social work profession.

Laura is a bicultural bilingual Mexican American PhD candidate at NYU Silver School of Social Work. She is working on her dissertation, exploring healthcare access for Latino subgroups with co-occurring depression and diabetes. Laura is also a full-time Care Management Social Worker, assisting medically high-risk individuals in improving mental and physical health well-being by partnering in improving unmet health needs. Additionally, she actively participates in Social Work Anti-Racism and Inclusion Initiative (SWARI) at the Mount Sinai Hospital. Laura has presented her work at national conferences and is working toward first- and co-authored publications, including two co-authored papers from the CTI study under review. She has also served in a one-year leadership capacity as President of the Doctoral Student Association at NYU Silver. In recognition of Laura's hard work and accomplishments, she was awarded and participated in the 2019 Science Alliance Leadership Training at The New York Academy of Sciences. Laura's teaching experience includes independently teaching Social Welfare Programs & Policies I. She has been a teaching assistant for Social Work Research 1 for two semesters for the Seminar on Evidence-Based Practice in Mental Health and Human Behavior in the Social Environment.

Krushika’s research lies at the intersection of women's im/migration, child welfare and domestic violence, alongside understanding family separation and divorce experiences. Her particular focus includes studying intervention development and implementation of restorative justice based approaches to domestic violence; she centers the exploration and understanding of lived experiences of families surviving multiple systems involvement and uncovers the impacts of differing notions of justice in service delivery. Krushika has served as a longstanding communal support and educator for children with developmental disorders in her hometown of Muscat, Oman, and pioneered a peer support program for communal mental health treatment at NYU Abu Dhabi in 2014.

Aaron Rodwin is a PhD student at NYU’s Silver School of Social Work. Aaron’s research interests focus on mental health services and interventions for marginalized young adults experiencing serious mental illnesses (SMI). More specifically, Aaron is committed to developing services and interventions that use culturally and developmentally responsive modalities to maximize engagement, involvement, and ultimately enhance personal recovery. A significant focus of Aaron’s research investigates how music and expressive strategies can be integrated and embedded into mental health services as a novel youth-oriented medium to improve engagement and recovery (i.e., personal and clinical).

Brittney D. Singletary is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, who attended the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work Program and received her MSW, with a concentration in Mental Health and Integrated Health. Throughout her seven years of experience Brittney has provided care to youth ranging from early childhood to late adolescents and their families in a variety of settings. Brittney has worked with children and families in school, community, and outpatient settings. Brittney is trained in Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC), Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), Incredible Years (IY)- Small Group Dina, and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). Her research portfolio consists of working as the clinical supervisor of the Services for Teens at Risk (STAR) Research Department, which focuses on conducting federally and foundationally funded studies to better support youth who may be experiencing depression or suicidality, as well as, conducting secondary analysis on depression risk and mental health concerns in youth.

Brittney’s clinical and research emphasis is on understanding sociocultural influences on complex trauma and adverse experiences in African American youth, and how sociocultural influences impact mental health outcomes, with a supplemental focus on suicidal youth and the evaluation of empirically supported intervention’s efficacy, effectiveness, and development.

Ortal is a PhD Candidate at the NYU Silver School of Social Work. Through both practice and research, she is committed to promoting reproductive justice and equitable access to abortion care. As a social worker, before immigrating to the US, Ortal worked in a mental health clinic and volunteered in Planned Parenthood. Today she is an advocate in All-Options, providing counseling and support for people in their experiences with pregnancy, parenting, abortion, and adoption. In her mixed-methods research, she is particularly interested in exploring structural, social, and economic barriers to abortion services, as well as examining the impact of restrictive abortion policies on marginalized communities and vulnerable groups. The overarching purpose of Ortal’s Doctoral Dissertation is to advance our understanding of the financial burden of accessing abortion care in the US and its associations with women’s psychological wellbeing at the time of seeking and obtaining an abortion. She was selected to be an Emerging Scholar in Family Planning and awarded a research grant for her Dissertation from the Society of Family Planning Research Fund. She has been a member of multiple research teams and these days she is also teaching Social Work Research 1&2 at NYU. Ortal holds an MSW from the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Cliff Whetung is a fifth-year PhD Candidate at the Silver School of Social Work. He applies critical gerontological theories to and longitudinal methods to investigate issues of health equity and social determinants of cognitive health among Indigenous older adults in the United States and Canada. He received his MSW from the Columbia School for Social Work and his BA from Princeton University.

Whitney Wortham's research interests include mental health services research, implementation science, and evidence-based practice with youth and families. A core question in her current work centers on front-line practices that facilitate linkages to services within the context of the child welfare system. Whitney served as the Family Grants Project Director where she worked as a team member on both an early childhood System of Care grant with the District of Columbia Department of Behavioral Health and a five year SAMHSA-funded project on early access to integrated behavioral health and trauma-specific interventions for children, adolescents, and their families in Washington, DC. Whitney additionally has clinical experience utilizing evidence-based practices to support children and families in community settings. Whitney’s aspiration as a future social work researcher is to lead improvements in access and quality of mental health services for young children, youth, and families impacted by poor social determinants of health through policy, advocacy, and to partner with providers and community-based organizations on the ground. Whitney holds her MSW from Fordham University, her MPH from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and her BA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

Nari's research is motivated by promoting social justice and improving the mental health of ethnic minorities and immigrants/refugees both in the United States and Asian context. Nari is particularly interested in the role of community-level factors in predicting mental health outcomes, e.g. advocacy, collective efficacy, racial climate, or community engagement. Further, She desires to investigate and develop a community-based intervention including culturally and linguistically appropriate services. Currently, she is engaged in NYU CARA Project to study Asian Americans’ community well-being.

Nari’s methodological interests encompass leveraging computational social science approaches to social work research especially Natural Language Processing or Geographic Information systems. At NYU, Nari has been working on two research projects funded by NYU Constance and Martin Silver Center on Data Science and Social Equity. 

More information: https://nariyoo.com/