NASW Board of Directors
Director, Region IX

Leticia Villarreal Sosa

Leticia Villarreal Sosa, PhD, MSW, LCSW, is Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development at UTRGV. She received her BSW from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and her AM and PhD from SSA (now the Crown School) at the University of Chicago. She has her Professional Educator license and fourteen years’ experience as a school social work practitioner. She is also a licensed clinical social worker in Illinois. She also serves as a Mental Health Expansion Consultant at Arab American Family Services in Worth, IL. Her research includes Photovoice with the Muslim/Arab and Latinx communities in Chicagoland as a tool for advocacy, and a Spencer funded immigrant student equity project. Her most recent book focuses on the testimonios of Latinas in Chicago who significantly transformed health, education, and social services. She was awarded a grant from New York Life Foundation to develop a culturally informed response to grief and loss certificate for school-based professional. She has received several honors including book of the year award for her book, School Social Work: National Perspectives on Practice in the Schools, the best conceptual article published in 2021 in the International Journal of Social Work Education for her de-colonizing approach to study abroad; the Davlin Diversity Leadership Award in 2022; and the Gary Lee Shaffer award in 2023 for significant contributions to the field of school social work.