Maria Socorro Mangila-Nguyen joined the UBC School of Social Work as an adjunt professor from January to April, 2022, to teach Sowk 337 Culture and Race in Social Work Practice while working on her dissertation and preparing for her oral exam in 2023.

Mangila-Nguyen successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled: One-and-a-half Generation (1.5G) Filipinx Youth in Metro Vancouver: Narratives of Negotiating Ethno-Cultural Identities and graduated in November 2023.

She is centered in life experiences, community leadership, and professional practice. Her scholarship and practice have focused on settlement and acculturation, prevention, education, and intervention on family violence experienced by racialized women and children, diversity and inclusion in community-based organizations, and community-based research. She engaged in community development and advocacy, facilitated support groups for immigrant youth and managed cross-cultural parenting programs at a local neighbourhood house. She managed various programs for immigrant and refugee women and youth at the Immigrant Services Society of BC and MOSAIC. She was the Executive Director of the Vancouver & Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services Society from 2018 to 2022. For many years, she mentored undergraduate and graduate students through field work or practicums including BSW/MSW students from UBC, Douglas College as well as students from Switzerland and Sweden.

Dr. Maria Socorro Mangila-Nguyen is a practicing Registered Social Worker in British Columbia (BC), Canada and is passionate about transformative justice, learning and teaching.

Interests

• Settlement and acculturation of newcomers in Canada
• Intimate partner/domestic violence against racialized women and children
• Populations affected by social exclusion, poverty, mental health, and homelessness
• Racialized youth in conflict with the criminal justice system
• Curriculum/program development, implementation, and evaluation
• Social policy, advocacy, community development and international development
• Processes of decolonization in systems, organizations, legislations, and policies