Carolina Velez-Grau
Assistant Professor
Biography
Carolina Vélez-Grau is a Colombian-born social worker who joined the Boston College School of Social Work (BCSSW) in 2022, following her Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at New York University's Silver School of Social Work. Her research and practice center on the lives of ethnoracially minoritized adolescents and their families, with a particular emphasis on Latine adolescents in the United States. Professor Vélez-Grau's research investigates the individual, interpersonal, and contextual risk and protective factors associated with suicidal behaviors among these adolescents. Utilizing community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods, such as Photovoice, she explores adolescents’ perceptions of mental health, mental health services, and the barriers and facilitators to mental health engagement. Additionally, she employs both quantitative and qualitative research methods to examine the applicability of the interpersonal theory of suicide and to understand the factors associated with suicide ideation and suicide risk among adolescents. Her ultimate goal is to develop practical and affordable suicide prevention approaches that extend beyond clinical settings and into the community. With recent funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH; K23 MH137405), Dr. Vélez-Grau is investigating a task-shifting approach to suicide prevention among Latine adolescents, aiming to increase access to care and reduce suicide risk within their communities. Vélez-Grau is a licensed clinical social worker with over 15 years of experience working with youth and families from ethnoracially minoritized backgrounds. She has directed the Home-Based Crisis Intervention Program (HBCI) at New York-Presbyterian Children’s Hospital and served as a Family Specialist in the American Red Cross September 11 Recovery Program. She has conducted workshops and consultations with community agencies, parents, and adolescents on mental health, suicide, and service engagement in New York City and Boston. Furthermore, she has trained mental health providers in Mexico and Nicaragua to offer virtual emotional support in Spanish and native languages to mothers of children and adolescents experiencing toxic stress due to their migratory status in New York City. Currently, she is a consultant for the project “Answering the Alarm: A System of Care for Black Youth At-Risk for Suicide” (R01 MH29786 NIMH). Professor Vélez-Grau holds a Ph.D. in Social Work and a Master of Social Work degree from Columbia University School of Social Work, as well as a Psychology degree from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia.