Maria Joy Ferrera is an Associate Professor within DePaul University’s Department of Social Work and Co-Director for the Center for Community Health Equity, a partnership between DePaul and Rush University to promote health equity. She received her PhD and MA from the University of Chicago-Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Having served for over 25 years as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the areas of child welfare and medical social work, Dr. Ferrera continues to do work in the Filipinx American and other immigrant communities.

Her areas of practice and research involve decolonization methods, ethnic identity development; community-engaged, socially just practices and research with racial and ethnic minority youth; health and mental health disparities among racial and ethnic minority communities. She is the Co-Founding Co-Chair of the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health (CIMH), a collaborative, community based and research informed initiative that is a partnership between immigrants regardless of status, mental health practitioners, community organizers, researchers, and allies. She is a Steering Committee Member of The Midwest Human Rights Consortium (MHRC) a referral network of multi-institutional and interdisciplinary professionals who perform trauma-informed forensic evaluations for individuals seeking asylum in the U.S.