Image of Dr. Martha Lucia Garcia

Contact Information

Academic School

School of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Office

Dyson 341

Email

Martha.Garcia@Marist.edu

Phone

(845) 575-3000 ext. 2166

Dr. Martha Lucia Garcia

Assistant Professor

Bio

Dr. Garcia returned to the East Coast to join Marist College.  She came from Pacific University’s Master in Social Work Program, which she helped implement. Dr. Garcia taught at CUNY School of Law for twelve years in the Clinical Program where she co-developed an innovative interdisciplinary teaching program, training legal interns in the practice of community lawyering, collaboration and client focused legal representation.  She has also taught as an adjunct at Hunter College School of Social Work, Hunter College, and Cornell University Extension in New York City. Before acquiring her PhD in 2013 and dedicating herself to academia, she worked as a social worker in a variety of capacities and settings. Ms. Garcia’s primary areas of work include: gender violence, trauma and recovery, immigrant rights, culturally relevant and appropriate practices, managing conflict, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She has been program developer, executive director, grants officer, clinician in private practice, clinical supervisor to social workers and an organizational consultant. She brings this experience to her teaching, providing her a wide range of contexts from which to draw to teach the practice of social work.   

Education

PhD in Social Welfare, Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Masters in Social Work, Hunter College School of Social Work
Baschelor in Arts, Dual Major, Psychology and Sociology

Research Interests / Areas of Focus

Dr. Garcia’s research interests include interdisciplinary collaboration, community practice, community mental health with community health workers, and the use of Complementary Alternative Health practices in support of emotional health.

Selected Publications

Accepted

Garcia, M.L. 2020. The Global Comes Home: Teaching Social Work Students How to Attend to the Realities and Needs of Latinx Immigrants. Journal of Teaching in Social Work. Routledge Publisher. Manuscript ID. WTSW 2019-0859 R1.

Published

Council on Social Work Education. (2020). Specialized Practice Curricular Guide for Substance Use Social Work Practice. 2015 EPAS Curricular Guide Resources Series.  

Bello, E., Garcia, M. L., Sprager, L. 2018. Supporting Community Health Workers, The First Responders to Community Crisis. Northwest Regional Primary Care Association, Featured Articles: Workforce. February 2018  

Conyer, A., Fields, C.R., Garcia, M.L., Rivas, M., Hanssen, D., Williams, S.A.S.. 2020. Association Awareness: Pedagogically Reframing Difficult Dialogues. In Laura Parson & C. Casey Ozaki Editors, Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Higher Education. Springer Nature Switzerland. ISBN 978-030-44938-4

EcoAnalitica. 2019. Evaluacion Del Componente De Fortalecimiento Institucional En El Marco Del Programa Integrando Horizontes. Preliminar VI, Informe Final. 

Garcia, M. & Halperin, D. 2018. The VAWA/U Visa Self Prep Course: Socio-political and Organizational Influences on a legal and social work group model for immigrant survivors of intimate partner violence. In Wilkins, C., Doel, M., Skolnik, S., Genke, J., Greenhouse Gardella, L., Editors. Group Work Around The Globe: Creating Transformative Connections in Challenging Times. Proceedings of the XXXVIII and XXXIX International Symposium of the International Association for Social Work with Groups, New York City, NY, USA. Whiting & Birch Limited. 

Riccardi, F., Mizrahi, T., Garcia, M.L., Korazim-Korösy, Y., & Blumsack, A. 2017. Using ATLAS.ti in qualitative research for analyzing inter-disciplinary community collaboration. In SAGE Research Methods Cases. doi: 10.4135/9781473995895