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Alicia Mendez, PhD, MSW

Research Assistant Professor
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Alicia Mendez, PhD, MSW, is a Research Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Social Work. She received her MSW and PhD in Social Work from Rutgers University in 2023. Additional training she recently completed include, but are not limited to, the Attachment, Regulation, and Competency Framework, practicing and coding the Working Model of the Child Interview, and the Enough Abuse Prevent Child Sexual Abuse in Schools and Youth Serving Organizations Certifications. Originally from Seattle, WA., prior to pursuing a career in research Dr. Mendez worked as a preschool teacher and domestic abuse hotline operator.
The 2025 International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation will be the first time Dr. Mendez has attended and presented her work at this conference. She is a member of the Society for Research in Child Development and The Society for Social Work Research, where she was also a board member from 2020-2022. She received the Dissertation of the Year: Dean’s Honorable Mention from Rutgers University, and the Award for Anti-Racist Leadership and Service from the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work among others.
Her current research focuses on intergenerational trauma, child sexual abuse, and the child welfare policy and practice. These foci are rooted in understanding the long-term impacts of complex and relational trauma, with particular focus on growth, innovative practice, and equitable policy. She utilizes reflexive methodologies and strengths-based frameworks to investigate how trauma impacts each member of the parent-child dyad, how trauma patterns are broken intergenerationally, and how intergenerational posttraumatic growth evolves among families. She aims to infuse parent and child voice into child welfare policy and practice. She has published on these subjects in journals including, but not limited to, Zero to Three, Behavioral Sciences, Child Welfare, and Child Abuse & Neglect.

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