Fareeda Abo-Rass, M.S.W., Ph.D., will join SSW as a research fellow in January 2022 under the mentorship of Professor Ora Nakash. Abo-Rass was awarded the prestigious Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Council for Higher Education for Israel scholarship for outstanding postdoctoral female researchers.
Abo-Rass is a Palestinian-Arab social worker and researcher, and a citizen of Israel, who completed her Ph.D. at the Department of Community Mental Health at the University of Haifa in Israel. Abo-Rass's field of research focuses on the psychosocial aspects of mental health among the Arab minority in Israel. Following her Ph.D. research, she published several articles on health-related quality of life, illness representations, self-stigma and self-esteem among younger and older Arabs diagnosed with depression. She was awarded the Council for Higher Education for Israel prize for outstanding Ph.D. students and Haifa University’s Jewish-Arab Center scholarship for outstanding female Arab students. Abo-Rass completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Conflict Management and Resolution Program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, during which she examined sociocultural barriers and facilitators to mental health service use among the Arab minority in Israel.
"It is an honor to mentor Dr. Abo-Rass through this next phase of her career," said Professor and Director of the Doctoral Program, Ora Nakash. "The prestigious fellowships she has received are a testament to her talent and excellence and her commitment to advancing racial and social justice. I am thrilled to welcome her to our community."
During her research fellowship at SSW, Abo-Rass intends to expand her research to the Arab minority in the US, to help develop interventions to increase access and quality of mental health care for communities of color.
