Our Directors and Affiliates
Our directors facilitate the development and implementation of the Institute's mission and vision with the guidance of our faculty and student affiliates.
Directors
Filomena Critelli has a history of engagement in global social justice advocacy and social work within immigrant communities. Her international research projects, scholarship and academic exchanges have involved partnerships in Pakistan, India, Mexico, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan and Italy and have focused on gender, gender-based violence, migration and human rights.
Critelli's recent publications include Trauma and Human Rights: Integrating Approaches to Address Human Suffering, which she co-authored with Lisa D. Butler and Janice Carello.
Laura Lewis has facilitated academic partnerships in Moldova and Mexico, and developed and supervised international field placements for MSW students in several countries including India, Macedonia, Thailand, South Korea and the Dominican Republic.
Affiliates
| Sarah Richards-Desai | Email: scrichar@buffalo.edu |
| Professional and research interests: | Refugee women’s social and economic integration, social capital and networks of resettled refugees, transnational feminist research, mixed methods research, cultural humility in social work with refugees |
| Kelly Patterson | Email: klp27@buffalo.edu |
| Professional and research interests: | Community-based housing organizations, fair housing advocacy, housing patterns and poverty, spatial issues and social service access/delivery, subsidized housing, urban neighborhoods |
| Asli Yalim | Email: asliyali@buffalo.edu |
| Professional and research interests: | Refugee mental health and psychosocial well-being, forced migration in the Middle East, resilience and empowerment, community-based participatory research |