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Dr. Megan Finno-Velasquez

Associate Professor

Contact Info
mfv@nmsu.edu
1 (773) 573-0658

View CV
Expertise:

Biography

Ph.D. in Social Work from University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
MSW from NM Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM

Dr. Finno-Velasquez is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at New Mexico State University. Her research centers around the impact of culturally appropriate maltreatment prevention strategies with immigrant populations and improving child welfare service system response to the needs of immigrant families. Her recent funded research uses a community-based participatory approach to improving access to and relevance of social services for immigrant families with young children in the New Mexico borderlands.

Dr. Finno-Velasquez is the former director and current advisor to the Center on Immigration and Child Welfare, a national peer membership organization that focuses on building capacity of the U.S. child welfare system to respond to the unique needs of immigrant families and children through research, resource development and dissemination, training and technical assistance, and cross-sector workgroup coordination. She received her PhD in Social Work from the University of Southern California in 2015, and has an MSW from Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM and a Bachelor of Sciences in Psychology and Spanish from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

 

Recent Publications

  1. Lovato, K., Finno-Velasquez, M., Sepp, S., Ramirez, J. J., Hernandez-Mekonnen, R., & Mendoza, V. (2023). Working With Immigrants Who Are Child Welfare Involved: Promoting Innovative Collaborations and Systems Involvement During a Public Health Crisis. Families in Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10443894231200915
  2. Villamil Grest, C., Finno-Velasquez, M., Lopez, A. & Sepp, S.“We Don’t Turn Away Families”: Support for Immigrant Families with Young Children During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Hum. Rights Soc. Work 8, 348–358 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-023-00262-3    
  3. Finno-Velasquez, M., Lopez, A., Aquino, E., Upston, M., Baird, N., & Sepp, S. (2022). Interventions designed to prevention child maltreatment with immigrant and refugee families in the U.S.: A systematic review. Journal of Public Child Welfare. https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2022.2118929
  4. Lovato, K., Finno-Velasquez, M., Sepp, S., & Mendoza, V. (2022). The impact of COVID-19 and immigration enforcement on service delivery for immigrant origin families involved in the child welfare system. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-022-00879-9
  5. Byers, K., Monahan, E., McCrae, J., Robinson, J., & Finno-Velasquez, M. (2022). Improving child health and healthcare use outcomes: How risk and resilience intersect in pediatric care. Prevention Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-022-01389-x.
  6. Garza, A., Brown, M., & Finno-Velasquez, M. (2022). A case study in working with remote field interviewers. SAGE Research Methods. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781529604986
  7. Spain, A. K., Monahan, E. K., Alvarez, K., & Finno-Velasquez, M. (2021). Latinx Family Perspectives on Social Needs Screening and Referral during Well-Child Visits. MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing, 46(3), 143–149. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMC.0000000000000710
  8. Villamil, C., Finno-Velasquez, M., Unger, J., & Cederbaum, J.  (2021). Adverse Childhood Experiences among Latinx youth: Does adversity worsen across generations? American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 60(1), 20-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.07.007
  9. Finno-Velasquez, M., Villamil, C. Perrigo, J., White, M., & Hurlburt, M. (2019). An exploration of the socio-cultural context in immigrant-concentrated neighborhoods with unusual rates of child maltreatment Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2019.1629368
  10. Finno-Velasquez, M., Cahill, B., Ullrich, R., & Matthews, H. (2018). Heightened immigration enforcement and the well-being of children in immigrant families: Early childhood program responses. Zero to Three Journal, 39 (1), 27-32.
  11. Finno-Velasquez, M. & Dettlaff, A. J. (2018). Challenges to family unity and opportunities for promoting child welfare in an increasingly punitive immigration landscape. Advances in Social Work, 18(3). https://doi.org/10.18060/21716