PhD Forthcoming Graduates
| ANIL ARORA | MARCUS BROWN | HELEN CLANCY | JESSE HARTLEY | YING MA | KATYAYANI STROHL |
AYESHA TARIQ
|
 |
ANIL ARORA, MSW LCSWPERSONAL STATEMENT Anil Arora, LCSW (he/him), is a first-generation Indian student and a PhD Candidate at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. He developed an early awareness of both the visible and invisible struggles people face in pursuit of stability and belonging. This awareness—and the compassion modeled by those around him—became the foundation of his purpose as a social worker and researcher. His scholarship centers on advancing the mental health and well-being of military service members and veterans who have experienced trauma. Drawing from nearly a decade of clinical practice with veterans and their families, Anil’s quantitative dissertation integrates trauma-informed, community-engaged, and holistic frameworks to examine how military sexual trauma (MST), moral injury, and institutional betrayal influence mental health outcomes and service utilization. His approach reflects a commitment to amplifying the voices of service members through their support in creating the research through applied, anti-oppressive, and culturally responsive research. Anil’s goals include contributing to mental health service utilization research, empowering emerging social workers through ongoing mentorship, and informing future interventions addressing sexual trauma. Anil is passionate about making research accessible to all. With a focus on public impact scholarship and the democratization of knowledge through hosting a podcast or making one-page summaries. Clinically, he continues to provide therapy through a private practice and his long-term goal is to bridge the gap between research and practice. RESEARCH INTERESTS
|
 |
MARCUS BROWN, MSW, LCSW-SPERSONAL STATEMENT Marcus Brown, MSW, LCSW-S (he/him) is a doctoral candidate in the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston and a doctoral fellow with the Council on Social Work Education’s Minority Fellowship Program. He brings over a decade of clinical experience and a deep commitment to racial and mental health equity across research, teaching, and practice. His professional background includes work in inpatient psychiatry, integrated care, crisis intervention, and youth development across Missouri and Texas. Marcus’s dissertation, Pathways to Mental Health Recovery among Black Adults with Serious Mental Illness, is externally funded and explores how Black adults navigate formal and informal support systems in relation to their recovery. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and semi-structured interviews, his work centers the lived experiences of Black adults and the cultural, spiritual, and structural factors shaping their recovery journeys. As part of this work, he chairs a Community Advisory Board, reflecting his commitment to participatory and community-engaged research. His broader scholarship focuses on dismantling barriers to care and reimagining recovery-oriented services for Black communities. Marcus currently provides clinical supervision to LMSWs as an LCSW-S and works as a therapist. He is also passionate about mentoring and teaching the next generation of social workers through clinically grounded, anti-oppressive, and culturally responsive pedagogy. RESEARCH INTERESTS
|
 |
HELEN CLANCY, MSWPERSONAL STATEMENT Helen Clancy, MSW (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston. Her research examines how overlapping crises—including hurricanes, flooding, and the COVID-19 pandemic—shape resilience, civic engagement, and well-being in disaster-affected communities. Guided by a social ecological framework, Helen investigates how individual and community resilience processes interact with disaster exposure to influence well-being. Using structural equation modeling with community survey data from Harris County neighborhoods disproportionately impacted by multiple disasters, her dissertation explores resilience as both a mediator and moderator in the relationship between disaster experiences and well-being. Helen’s research agenda is deeply informed by her career as a journalist, communications strategist, and public servant, where she developed community-centered storytelling and policy communications in public education, local government, and philanthropy. This background drives her commitment to public-impact scholarship: producing accessible reports, policy briefs, and op-eds that connect research to civic dialogue and decision-making. Her long-term goal is to advance equitable disaster resilience policies and strengthen civic infrastructure in under-resourced communities. RESEARCH INTERESTS
|
 |
JESSE HARTLEY, MS, MSWPERSONAL STATEMENT Jesse M. Hartley, MS, MSW, is a doctoral student at the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work (GCSW). Her community, educational, and professional experiences inform her broader research agenda, which examines how historical and present-day structural violence – rooted in whiteness and anti-Blackness – continues to shape social welfare work. Jesse explores the profession’s systemic neglect in confronting whiteness in the classroom and social welfare institutions. Jesse’s dissertation, “Benevolent Violence: Examining White Women’s Investment in Social Welfare Work,” uses historical methodologies to explore how Progressive Era social welfare work positioned Black communities as moral projects and sites of reform, through which white women gained emotional authority and professional legitimacy. The long-term goal of this work is to generate knowledge that disrupts hegemonic social work educational and institutional spaces. Jesse holds a Bachelor of Psychology from University of Southern Mississippi, a Master of Clinical Psychology from Mississippi State University, and a Master of Social Work from Tulane University. Jesse began her career as a clinical therapist then worked in the nonprofit sector for 11 years. She has served as a director for both a state and local children’s advocacy center where she secured state and federal grant funding, implemented and managed program evaluation, and led national accreditation processes. Jesse has built and sustained community partnerships, led strategic planning efforts, and continues to support local organizations in a volunteer capacity. Jesse has served as a clinical supervisor, practicum supervisor, and faculty advisor for the GCSW’s Political Social Work Focused Learning Opportunity. She served on the CSWE Marco Curricular Guide Policy Focus Team and currently teaches foundations and advanced policy and leadership courses. RESEARCH INTERESTS
|
 |
YING MA, MSWPERSONAL STATEMENT Ying Ma, MSW (she/her/hers), is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston. She received a Master of Social Work from Washington University in Saint Louis, with a specialization in aging society and older adults; a doctoral degree in Epidemiology from Anhui Medical University in China; and a Master of Science from Anhui Medical University in Health Care Management. Ying has practicum experience in case management with immigrant older adults and in advocating for residents in assisted living facilities as an Ombudsman. She is also a co-founder of the Hefei Community School in her hometown, which offers continuing education for frontline social workers and conducts program evaluations, and the founder of Glimmers Together, an online reading circle designed to advance social connection, reduce loneliness, and promote psychological well-being among women. She is currently a licensed Master of Social Work in Hong Kong. Ying has over fifteen years of experience in teaching undergraduate and graduate students prior to pursuing social work. She has taught courses including Health Systems, Health Education, Health Care Management, Hospital Management, and Research Methods. Her primary goal as an educator is to help students become more aware of their values, interests, and strengths throughout the learning process. She embraces a participatory teaching style that encourages active engagement, fosters critical thinking, and integrates technology to enhance the learning experience. Ying’s research focuses on aging and health, with particular attention to mental health (e.g., depression and loneliness), the digital divide, chronic disease management, and cognitive functioning. Drawing on her personal experience of living with her grandparents and her interdisciplinary training in public health, health care management, and social work, she has led multiple research projects in China examining diverse aspects of healthy aging. As a quantitative researcher, she employs cross-sectional and longitudinal cohort designs, and her dissertation explores how Internet use and social capital shape loneliness among Chinese adults, with variations across age, gender, and region. Her future work will expand to include qualitative methods and evidence-based interventions, further demonstrating her commitment to advancing gerontological social work and enhancing the impact and applicability of her research in promoting healthy aging. RESEARCH INTERESTS
|
 |
KATYAYANI STROHL MSW, LICSWPERSONAL STATEMENT Katyayani R Strohl, MSW, LICSW is a Doctoral Candidate at the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston and a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker in Washington State. She received her MSW from the University of Washington in 2016 with a concentration in Multigenerational Policy and Practice. Her clinical practice focused on working with communities, family caregivers, and individuals impacted by Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia. Her academic projects have included: program evaluation for community-based interventions and services, conceptual work focused on applying theoretical frameworks to practice and empirical research, and community-based qualitative research conducted in multiple languages with the goal of creating integrated health palliative care interventions for individuals with a primary language other than English. Katyayani’s Dissertation, “I am Just a Bill no Longer Sitting on Capitol Hill: A Critical Policy Ethnographic Look at How the Government-Nonprofit Relationship Impacts the Implementation of the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP)”, was built off her clinical and mezzo practice. This research investigates how typology of power and third-party government theory impacts the implementation of NFCSP services at the local level. The project aims to look at decisions and influences of the Nonprofit-government relationship made at the Federal, State and Local level that impacts service equity. RESEARCH INTERESTS
|
 |
AYESHA TARIQ, MPHILPERSONAL STATEMENT Ayesha Tariq, MPhil (she/hers) is a first-generation Pakistani doctoral candidate at the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work. Her scholarship and professional trajectory are shaped by her lived experiences and her work with displaced populations. Prior to pursuing doctoral studies, Ayesha worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Pakistan, where she collaborated with internally displaced populations (IDPs) and Afghan refugees. In this role, she designed inclusive interventions that promoted social cohesion and addressed the needs of vulnerable communities, an experience that continues to ground her commitment to advancing equity in refugee resettlement. Ayesha’s dissertation, “Refugee Resettlement, Intersecting Identities and Wellbeing: A Narrative Inquiry of South Asian Refugee Mothers in the Greater Toronto Area”, employs an intersectional lens and centers decolonial voices to amplify the lived experiences of refugee mothers. By engaging deeply with their narratives, her research explores how intersecting identities, such as gender, motherhood, culture, and migration status, shape resettlement journeys and influence well-being. Through this work, she seeks to uncover the structural barriers, social support, and cultural resources that inform refugee mothers’ integration experiences. Her scholarly goals are threefold: (1) to contribute to a deeper understanding of the resettlement processes of refugee women through intersectional and decolonial scholarship, (2) to inform the design of culturally grounded policies and interventions that promote refugee well-being, and (3) to mentor and support emerging social work scholars who aspire to engage in anti-oppressive, community-centered research. As a first-generation scholar, a mother, and a woman of color, Ayesha brings a unique perspective to her work that bridges lived experience, professional practice, and academic research. She is dedicated to ensuring that refugee women’s voices are centered in both scholarship and practice, resisting epistemic exclusion and advancing more inclusive understandings of well-being in resettlement contexts. RESEARCH INTERESTS
|
| TO TOP |