Faculty

Lisa Fedina is an assistant professor at the School of Social Work. Her research aims to advance knowledge on how economic insecurity (e.g., housing, food/nutrition, healthcare) elevates risks for repeated violence and victimization across the lifespan, and what mechanisms across levels of the social ecology can mitigate such harms. Her current studies are funded by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the National Institute on Aging and the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. This research examines socio-ecological risk, protective factors against suicide risk, adverse mental health outcomes associated with childhood and youth violence exposure, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault. She is particularly interested in understanding how social policy and structural factors perpetuate inequalities in violence and health, and improving systems-level (e.g., criminal justice, healthcare) responses to gender-based violence.

Fedina’s research has been published in top peer-reviewed journals including the American Journal of Public Health and has been featured in outlets such as Psychology Today and USA Today. She has served on task forces to develop policy guidance for issues related to violence, including the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. Her social work practice background is in community organizing, policy analysis and advocacy, and direct services to survivors of sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and human trafficking.

PhD, University of Maryland; MSW and BSW, University of Toledo.