The School of Social Work’s International Committee brings together a group of faculty whose work stretches across continents and communities, united by a commitment to expanding the reach and relevance of social work worldwide. Through their research, faculty are actively shaping the future of international practice and driving meaningful global impact.

In this interview series, they share how they continue advancing their work amid tightening funding landscapes, along with their candid perspectives on why global social work remains essential to building a more just and connected world.

Dr. Tara Powell, Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor at the School of Social Work, is driven in her research by two core questions:

How does the intersection of social, structural, and environmental stressors shape mental-health outcomes for children, families and communities living through disasters, conflict, and displacement?

And,

What are the most effective ways to design, adapt interventions, and disseminate that are culturally grounded, co-created with communities, and feasible to implement in low-resource and crisis-affected settings?

“My work was initially inspired by my own lived experience as an evacuee during Hurricane Katrina,” Dr. Powell explains. “Over the two decades since, I have continued to work in disaster- and conflict-affected regions, supporting response and recovery efforts across more than 25 global emergencies. During this time, I have witnessed how the field of disaster mental health has evolved, even as new and urgent challenges continue to surface. Most recently, my focus has been shaped by conversations with colleagues in the Middle East, Ukraine, the U.S. Gulf Coast, and across the Global South—communities navigating overlapping crises and raising questions that demand deeper research and innovation.”

Dr. Powell’s research tends to take place in rapidly changing environments, which include climate-fueled disasters, war, shifting political landscapes, and fragile systems of care. Some of the challenges she’s encountered include a shortage of trained professionals to provide mental health care, funding cycles that rarely align with the urgency of community needs, and disruption in data collection due unstable physical and political landscapes.

“These challenges have informed my research approach,” she says. “I recognize the importance of listening and adjusting throughout the research process. I have been able to do this through working closely with community member to establish strong partnerships and developing flexible study designs that can be adjusted or adapted to the realities of unstable or changing environments.

“The crises we face, such as climate change, conflict, displacement, and inequitable access to mental-health care spans acrossborders,” she continues on the topic of why global social work matters. “They are interconnected and shaped by global systems of power and inequality. For the communities I work with, global social work offers a pathway to culturally grounded, community-led supports that strengthen well-being in the contexts where people live. At a broader level, it pushes us to confront structural inequities, redistribute resources, and recognize that our collective well-being is intertwined.”

Dr. Powell’s work has been shaped by partnerships with educators, caregivers, youth, local NGOs, ministries of health and education, implementation scientists, clinicians, mental-health practitioners, and international organizations. These collaborations have allowed for the blending of local knowledge with academic rigor, and to co-design interventions that are contextually meaningful, feasible, and scalable.

“Across countries and contexts, I have worked closely with community partners to inform adaptation decisions, shape research questions, and provide the innovative solutions,” she says. “Cross-disciplinary collaborations—such as pairing social work with public health and data science, have also helped us approach mental-health systems in new ways, from GIS mapping of climate-risk to digital innovations for youth mental health.”

Looking ahead into the future, Dr. Powell is hopeful about global social work’s potential to create lasting change. “I see global social work moving toward co-creation and systems-level thinking,” she shares. “As funders increasingly recognize the need for sustained, equity-focused approaches over short-term interventions, communities are gaining more meaningful roles in shaping decisions and driving their own recovery.

“I see growing momentum behind climate-mental health, digital mental-health innovations, and community-engaged intervention science, all areas where social work is well positioned to lead meaningful change. I am inspired by the resilience and creativity of the communities I work alongside. They continually show that even amid crisis, there is space for collective action and hope.”

This story is part of an on-going series highlighting the global social work done by the School’s International Committee.