Our Team
Lab Director
Aimee Hilado, Ph.D., LCSW
Practitioner Scholar
Affiliations
- Assistant Professor, UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
- Faculty Affiliate, UChicago Center for Race, Politics, and Culture
- Fellow, UChicago Center for Health Administration Studies
- Chair, Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health
- Board Member, Co-Chair of Academy Council, Fellow, ZERO TO THREE
- Board Member, Bright Promises Foundation
Aimee Hilado, Ph.D., LCSW is a community-engaged, mixed methods researcher and seasoned licensed clinical social worker specializing in immigration trauma and immigrant/refugee mental health with over 16 years in the field. Dr. Hilado is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice where she teaches and conducts research on understudied pathways to promoting mental wellness and adjustment for newcomers. Her research lab studies diverse communities across different immigration statuses – refugees, asylum-seekers, migrants, unaccompanied children – and across the lifespan from early childhood to older adults with a focus on mental health outcomes in the context of the organizations and health systems they interface. Dr. Hilado’s work extends the fields understanding of contextual trauma theory, models of adaptive coping and healing, and environmental and sociopolitical conditions that adversely influence mental health.
Dr. Hilado’s work has been published in the Pediatric Annals, Psychological Services, Journal of Early Childhood Research, and Early Childhood Research and Practice. She also contributed to chapters in Refugee Mental Health (American Psychological Association, 2021) and Migrant Workers: Social Identity, Occupational Challenges, and Health Practices (NOVA Science Publishers, 2016). Her most recent edited book is Models for Practice with Immigrants and Refugees: Collaboration, Cultural Awareness, and Integrative Theory (Sage Publications, 2017). Dr. Hilado’s research has also been cited in national policy forums including the Migration Policy Institute and the Urban Institute as well as national and local media outlets including NPR, Fast Company, the Chicago Tribune, and WBEZ Chicago. As a migration trauma and mental health expert, she has been invited to contribute to articles in several magazines and newspapers including The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the South Side Weekly.
Read more on Dr. Hilado’s UChicago Crown Faculty Page.
Thank you to past and present colleagues and collaborators whose passion and shared investment in refugee mental health serves as a guidepost for the Refugee Wellness Lab.
~ Aimee Hilado
Research Methodologists
Melissa Bond, Ph.D.
Many to Many, LLC.
Tara Chiatovich, Ph.D.
Rethink First
Christine Leow, Ph.D., Ed.S., M.Ed.
The Hope Center, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
Belén Rogowski
Department of Psychological Sciences, Northern Arizona University
Robert E. Wickham, PhD
Department of Psychological Sciences, Northern Arizona University
Research Partners
Patricia Aguirre, LCSW
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
Melissa Buchholz, Psy.D.
School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital at University of Colorado – Denver
Yvita Bustos, Ph.D.
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Center for Childhood Resilience
Elizabeth Charleston
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago & DePaul University
Alissa Charvonia, Ph.D.
Howard University
Ann Chu, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco
Child Trauma Research Program
Rebecca Ford-Paz, Ph.D.
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago & Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Reiko Kakuyama-Villaber, M.Ed., MA
Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago
Research Assistants
Ash Campos
Undergraduate Student
The College, University of Chicago
Kathleen Cox
LSI Fellow
University of Chicago, Leadership and Society Initiative (LSI)
Elizabeth Davisson
Master’s Student
UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Natalie Fick
Master’s Student
UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Maddie Fox
Master’s Student
UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Eivan Herrera-Valdez
Master’s Student
UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Ana Castillo James
Master’s Student
UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Grace Lee
Undergraduate Student
University of Michigan
Shiyu Lin
Master’s Student
UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Zean Luo
Master’s Student
UChicago Harris School of Public Policy
Elizabeth Sanchez, MSW
Doctoral Student
UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Yiyao Sun
Undergraduate Student
The College, University of Chicago
Jonah Valverde
BA/MA Student
The College and MAPSS Program, University of Chicago
Casey Waskiewicz
Master’s Student
UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Other Contributors
Adrienne Kaplowitz
Web Designer
Past Contributors
Carrie Baker, AM '24
UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Oscar Becerra Hernandez, MPP '24
UChicago Harris School of Public Policy & Graduate Program in Health Administration Policy (GPHAP)
Abbey Cliffe, AM '24
UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Samantha Martinez, A.M.
Doctoral Student
UChicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Wendy R. Martinez Araujo, M.D.
NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry
Falu Rami, Ph.D.
Independent Researcher & Practitioner
