Ph.D. student Cheryl Aguilar, M.S.W., LICSW, received the 2024 Council on Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Diversity (CRECD) Award at CSWE this fall. “The award recognizes doctoral students and junior faculty members with outstanding scholarship in the areas of racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity in social work education,” reads the announcement on the CSWE website.
Aguilar was recognized for her paper “Luchando Junt@s Por Una Familia Unida (Fighting Together for a United Family): Rebuilding the Cohesive Self of Immigrant Parents and Community Healing after a Family Separation in the United States – A Self Psychology Perspective,’ published in the Clinical Social Work Journal.
Aguilar is a licensed independent clinical social worker whose work focuses on Latinxs, immigrants, refugees and other BIPOC communities. She is the founder, director and therapist at the Hope Center for Wellness in Washington, DC. Hope Center is a “multicultural and bilingual mental health practice focused on holistic healing of individuals and communities, and strengthening the programmatic and clinical skills of organizations, schools, and government agencies.”
In addition to being a post-resident student at SSW, Aguilar is a fellow of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Policy Research Scholars program and a fellow at American Psychological Association’s Interdisciplinary Minority Fellowship program. Aguilar was also named the 2023 Social Worker of the Year by the DC/VA Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and was recognized by Social Work Today magazine as one of 10 social workers making an impact across the country.
An immigrant from Honduras, Aguilar’s research explores the impact of immigration on mental health and the intersection of policy and mental health. She works to offer culturally-informed interventions for BIPOC communities and is a strong and dedicated advocate for the communities she serves.
