Flavio F. Marsiglia (GRS '91) recently appeared on an episode of the Mandel School's podcast, Change Leaders.
A professor at the Arizona State University School of Social Work, Marsiglia is also director of the university’s Global Center for Applied Health Research (GCAHR), which exists to design, implement and test evidence-based and culturally-appropriate interventions to improve the health and wellbeing of children, youth and families around the world through equitable research collaborations. He conducts substance use prevention research in partnership with universities and communities in Australia, China, Colombia, Guatemala, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain and Uruguay. He is also the Principal Investigator of the U54 specialized center health disparities research at the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center.
He recently received COVID-19 research supplements to make testing and vaccination accessible to underserved and vulnerable communities of Arizona. The National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health have consistently funded his program of research for the last 25 years.
Marsiglia has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, which have significantly advanced knowledge about health equity and adolescents’ risk, as well as protective factors and the relationship between acculturation, health and mental health. He is co-author of the widely adopted textbook, Diversity, Oppression and Change: Culturally Grounded Social Work, along with Stephen Kulis and Stephanie Peña. Oxford Press recently published its third edition of the book.
He has received numerous recognitions and awards—most recently, the American Public Health Association presented him with the 2022 Helen Rodriguez Trías Social Justice Award for his contributions to prevention science and COVID-19 work with vulnerable and underserved communities. In 2021, the daily featured him during Hispanic Heritage Month.
Marsiglia earned his PhD at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in 1991, his MSW from the School of Social Work at Universidad de la República, Uruguay in 1982, and his BA from José E. Rodó Preparatorio Universitario, Uruguay in 1979.