Associate Professor

Email: sbali3@central.uh.edu
Room: 402 Social Work Building
Phone: 713-743-0321

Personal Statement

Dr. Ali’s scholarship focuses on community-based participatory research (CBPR), primary and secondary HIV prevention, and the impact of structural conditions on youth and women’s health behaviors in global and local settings. Specifically, in a recent project, she utilized a CBPR framework and mixed-methods design to explore sex worker mothers’ relationship and sexual health communication with their adolescent children in Kolkata, India. Particularly, with the sex worker community in Kolkata, she designed, implemented, and tested the feasibility of culturally tailored, family-based sexual health communication intervention. She is also serves as principal investigator on a team of academic and community partners in New York City for a series of community-based studies examining the impact of housing as a structural intervention on risk behaviors and mental health of women living with HIV.

Education

PhD, Social Welfare, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy, 2013
MSW, Social Work, Columbia University, 2006
BA, Psychology and Law & Society, Purdue University, 2004

Licenses & Certifications

LMSW (New York State)

Courses Taught

• SOCW 7367 - Advanced Social Policy Analysis
• SOCW 7335 - Strategies for Community Development

Research Interests

• HIV risk and prevention
• Structural determininants of health
• Family-based interventions
• Global social work
• Methods: Mixed methods, community-based participatory research 

Additional Resources

Health Equity Toolkit (NCI/NIH)