Assistant Professor
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Aurora, Colorado
Laura Vargas, PhD, LMSW, MPA, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Department of Psychiatry. Previously, she was a T32 Postdoctoral Fellow with the Developmental Psychobiology Research Group at the University of Colorado School of Medicine (NIMH, T32MH015442) and a Vice-Provost Postdoctoral Fellow at the Penn Injury Science Center and School of Nursing in the University of Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D. in Social Policy and Policy Analysis from Columbia University School of Social Work in 2018, and her MSW from the same institution in 2017. She is funded by the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD, K01MD015768) and researches exposure to trauma and mental health of recent Latinx immigrants in the United States. Specifically, her research focuses on understanding how phenotypes of depression, anxiety, and PTSD are shaped by traumatic experiences, individual characteristics, and symptom severity among Latinx adult immigrants. Her past research focused on qualitative and quantitative methods to study the relationship between widespread community violence and healthcare service access and utilization in Mexico. Dr. Vargas is a bi-cultural Mexican/American, multi-lingual researcher and clinician focused broadly on the impacts of firearm-related violence, trauma exposure, and migration on mental health and health service utilization among Latinx populations. Dr. Vargas has regional expertise on violence, health, and social policy issues in Latin America through past policy and research experiences in Mexico and Brazil.
In Crisis Together: Psychiatric and Medical Care of New Migrants to the United States
Thursday, November 7, 2024
10:55 AM – 12:10 PM EST
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
