Lia W. Marshall

Dr. Marshall is currently the manager of course development and a lecturer at Columbia School of Social Work’s Online Campus. She previously worked at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health as the evaluation lead in the Tobacco Control and Prevention Program within the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention. She has 10 years of medical research administration experience in immunology, heart disease, and oncology, during which she developed an expertise in managing NIH grants and in clinical trial administration. Prior to receiving her MSW, Dr. Marshall also served as a massage therapist in hospital neonatal intensive care units and in assisted living facilities for older adults. Being witness to inequities in these health care settings inspired her to move into social work.

Her MSW internships include Peace Over Violence, a center for the prevention of sexual and domestic violence, intimate partner stalking, child abuse, and youth violence, where she served as an individual and group therapist. Her second-year internship was in the Department of Professional Training at the Alzheimer’s Association, where she trained helping professionals in the therapeutic care of those with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. She received her PhD in Social Welfare from UCLA, where her research focused on older adult well-being and prolonging independence and ability to age in place by investigating the interconnections among social isolation, mobility, and the built environment.

Dr. Marshall received a Masters of Social Work from California State University, Los Angeles, and a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She is passionate about social justice and health equity.