DR. LALAINE SEVILLANO
Dr. Lainey Sevillano is a tenure track Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work. As an interdisciplinary minority health and education scholar, she utilizes theories and methodological approaches from the fields of social work, education, and ethnic studies to examine how socio-historical experiences impact health and well-being among minoritized populations. Specifically, her work draws from an indigenist perspective to investigate interrelations between traumatic life stressors such as coloniality and discrimination, as well as adverse health outcomes such as substance misuse, psychological distress, and cardiovascular disease. Her scholarship consists of three main lines of inquiry woven together by the central research question: “How does culture function as a buffer to mitigate the effects of traumatic stressors and ultimately promote and improve health?” Dr. Sevillano completed her doctoral studies from the University of Texas at Austin where she was awarded a 2021-22 University Graduate Student Fellowship. Her dissertation was a mixed-methods study which explored the relationships between internalized colonialism, psychological distress, and academic success. She was awarded the 2022 API Social Work Educators Association's Doctoral scholarship for her dissertation. Dr. Sevillano is also a Fellow of the NIH-funded Indigenous Substance use and addictions Prevention Interdisciplinary Research Education (INSPIRE) program.