Angelina Valdespino (she/her) is a College Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at New Mexico State University, a licensed clinical social worker and board-approved supervisor, and the founder of Zia Vista Therapy — a community-based group mental health practice in Las Cruces built around equity, accessibility, and culturally responsive care. Her research centers the intersection of trauma, neurodevelopment, relational violence, and advocacy practice, with current scholarship exploring the intersection of autism and PTSD, ambient abuse in intimate partner violence, intergenerational healing, and queer culture in the U.S./Mexico borderlands of Southern New Mexico and far West Texas. She earned her BSW from New Mexico State University and her MSW from San Diego State University, and brings over two decades of experience across inpatient, residential, community mental health, and treatment foster care settings. Her clinical work is grounded in trauma and attachment-based practice and spans direct practice, reflective clinical supervision, consultation, cross-sector coalition building, and expert witness testimony in family court proceedings.

She teaches advanced clinical practice courses at the MSW level through the Global Campus and mentors graduate students in independent scholarship. Her approach to teaching and mentorship is relational and grounded in clinical practice — centering student voice, self-reflection, and the application of complex concepts to real-world work. She serves as Chair of the Diversity & Social Justice (DSJ) Committee, Faculty Lead for the DSJ Fellowship, and Faculty Advisor for the Graduate Student Social Work Association (GSSWA). Her community engagement includes membership in the Doña Ana Wellness Institute and service on its Advisory Council, where she also chairs the Structural Competency Subcommittee and serves on the Health Literacy Subcommittee; she additionally represents Zia Vista Therapy on the LC3 Behavioral Health Collaborative.