Diana A. Melendez

Diana Melendez (she/they/ella), MSW, LCSW, holds a PhD in Social Welfare from the Graduate Center-CUNY, with a Certificate in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy. Her dissertation developed and pilot tested a participatory storytelling tool to counter-map manifestations of coloniality within social work higher education. She completed her post-graduate clinical training at the Institute for Family Services in Liberation-Based Healing approaches to family therapy and for several years served as an anti-racist community organizer and trainer with The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. She has experience working across the mental health service continuum as a clinical social worker at multiple capacities, including supervision and program management. Diana currently teaches at Hunter’s Silberman School of Social Work and Columbia School of Social Work. Her research and practice interests are focused on the integration of liberation-based frameworks into social work pedagogy and praxis. Her teaching is process-oriented and influenced by texts such as adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy and Jennifer Mullan’s Decolonizing Therapy