Lisa Fedina

Lisa Fedina is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, where she investigates connections between violence across the lifespan (including child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault) and health/mental health outcomes. Her work focuses on risk/protective factors for campus sexual assault and suicide risk among emerging adults, analyzing how social policies and structural factors perpetuate inequalities in violence and healthcare access.

Current research examines trauma characteristics (type, repetition, timing) as predictors of depression/anxiety, drawing on cross-sectional data from 356 adults. She studies gender-based violence in Sub-Saharan Africa and economic hardship impacts on mental health, with funding from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, National Institute on Aging, and National Institute of Justice.

In 2023, she was named a SSWR Fellow for her contributions to social work research. Earlier, she received a Young Investigator Grant (2020) from AFSP. Her work has been published in top journals like American Journal of Public Health and Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, with media coverage by USA Today and Psychology Today.

Professor Fedina previously served on the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault (2014) and maintains a practice background in community organizing and survivor advocacy for sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and human trafficking.