Role Model for a Healthy and Just America

Honored researcher Julia Hastings of the schools of Public Health and Social Welfare and the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities. (Photo by Mark Schmidt)

ALBANY, N.Y. (January 27, 2017) — Julia Hastings is now in the elite company of Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) members who have served with distinction to advance the society.

Hastings, assistant professor in both the schools of Public Health and Social Welfare and co-director of the research and education training core in the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities, was inducted into the 2017 class of SSWR Fellows at the society’s annual conference on Jan. 14 in New Orleans, La.

The designation honors SSWR members who have forged, disseminated and translated research that addresses issues of social work practice and policy, promotes a diverse, equitable and just society, and furthers the 1,300-member organization as a scientific society. SSWR fellows are to serve as role models and mentors for individuals pursuing careers in social work research and to continue to actively advance the mission of the society.

Hasting’s research interests cover health and mental health disparities among ethnic minority populations, African-American mental health, welfare participation dynamics, and ethnic minority women’s health issues. Her projects, which have included directing research studies on diabetes and depression service utilization among African Americans, focus on the relationships between race, mental health outcomes, health conditions, risk and protective factors and poverty.

Lead researcher on four different studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, Hastings was the lead author of the 2015 book African Americans and Depression: Signs, Awareness, Treatments, and Interventions, which examined the realities of depression among African Americans and the various ways in which sufferers and their families address, or don’t address, it. She and her co-authors provided guidance for understanding the illness, suggestions on how to heal and recover holistically, and pathways for getting help.

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