Sireen Irsheid

Dr. Sireen Irsheid is an Assistant Professor at NYU Silver School of Social Work. She was previously a postdoctoral fellow for Juvenile Justice, Education, and Mental Health at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.

Dr. Irsheid is a clinician and critical race scholar whose research and practice focus on the complex interplay between race, education, mental health, and structural violence. Specifically, her work takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine and disrupt the multidimensional aspects of systemic racism and contextual processes that lead to mental health, education inequities, and the school-prison nexus. Her extensive clinical practice experience working as a school social worker with students who are impacted by legacies of colonialism and structural racism has reinforced her commitment to challenge prevailing systemic mechanisms that perpetuate mental health and education inequities.

As part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation network and a Health Policy Research Scholar Alumni, Dr. Irsheid leverages her practice experience and scholarship to build viable education and health policy solutions with the goal to disrupt mechanisms of inequity for Black and Brown young people. She encourages scholars, policy makers, educators and students to engage in the use of self-reflexivity, co-participation in knowledge production, and developing an orientation to our professional and personal lives to foster an anti-racist future across multiple practice domains.

Dr. Irsheid earned her PhD from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, her MSW from Columbia University, and her BA in Clinical and Child Developmental Psychology from DePaul University. She is also a licensed clinical social worker, holds certificates in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and is the mental health lead of Klinic Kids – a non-profit that provides national and global innovative sports-based mental health training, tools, and support to professional coaches, school staff, and young people.

Irsheid, S., Reed, T.A., Romanelli, M., Lindsey, M.A. (2022, November). Rethinking trauma and community violence among Black and Brown young people using a structural and anti-oppressive lens. Thematic panel, oral presentation, 2022 American Society of Criminology (ASC), Atlanta, GA.

Irsheid, S. (2020). The Hate They Give: An Examination of Legacies of Colonialism and Structural Racism in High Schools, Community Colleges and 4 Year “Elite” Institutions. Roundtable Presentation, 2020 Annual Conference, Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA).

Irsheid, S. (2020, January). Social Work and Health Equity: A Critical Framework for Building a Culture of Health. Roundtable presentation, 24th Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research - Reducing Racial and Economic Inequality, Washington, D.C.

Romanelli, M., Sheftall, A.H., Irsheid, S., Xiao, Y., & Lindsey, M.A.  (2020, January). Examining factors associated with escalatory suicide risk among US adolescents. Oral Presentation, 24th Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research, Washington, D.C.

Irsheid, S. (2019, October) Collaborating Across Traditional Disciplinary Silos to Address Racial Inequities in Mental Health Outcomes: Towards a Transdisciplinary Model for Research and Action. Oral Presentation, Interdisciplinary Association for Public Health Science, Washington, D.C.

Irsheid, S., Garthe, R., Gorman-Smith, D., Schoeny, M. (2019, March) Community violence and executive functioning: Implications for mental health and school-related outcomes. Presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Conferences, Baltimore, MD.

Garthe, R.C., Patel, S., Irsheid, S., Malcome, M., Cosey-Gay, F. (2018, March). Healthy teachers and healthy classrooms: An examination of teacher’s mental health and emotions on the classroom environment. Presented at the Society of Prevention Research Data Analysis Competition at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Prevention Research, Washington, D.C.

Irsheid, S., Taylor, J.J., Grant, K.E. (2010, June). Examining the moderating effects of a two-parent household and ethnicity on the link between coping and depression in low-income urban youth. Poster presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Society for Prevention Research, Denver, CO.

Grant, K..E., Tolan, P., DuBois, D., Gaylord-Harden, N., Irsheid, S. (2010, June) Integration of Research and Community Stake-Holder Input in the Development of a Preventive Intervention. Poster presented at Solution-Focused Brief Treatment Strategies, San Diego CA.

Taylor, J. J., Meyerson, D. A., Grant, K..E., Tailor, M. A., Irsheid, S., Sorrentino, S. (2010, June) Protective factor clusters affecting low-income urban youth exposed to stress. Poster presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Society for Prevention Research, Denver, CO.  

Thompson, S., Irsheid, S., Grant, K. (2009, November) Coping styles of African American youth living in poverty: Understanding the role of coping in resiliency. Poster presented at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, New York, NY.

Taylor, J. J., Grant, K., Irsheid, S., Meyerson, D.A. (2009, November) Peer and family support as moderators of a model of stress and symptoms in low-income urban youth.  Symposium on Testing the Universality of Risk Factors for Psychopathology in Highly Stressed Youth presented at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, New York, NY.

Grant, K..E., Tolan, P., DuBois, D., Gaylord-Harden, N., Irsheid, S. (2009, June) Development of an intervention for low-income urban students attending failing schools. Poster presented at the Institution of Education Sciences (IES) Conference, Washington, D.C.