Tamara Hicks

Tamara Hicks is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work with teaching focused in public health social work and macro/community-level intervention for social problems. Her teaching philosophy integrates cultural competency and critical thinking into each course with the goal of understanding how the intersections of power, oppression, and privilege impact not only the persons and communities we serve but the way we engage with them as change agents. Her broader research interests focus on social determinants of health/mental health among vulnerable communities, including stress, health disparities, environmental racism, gentrification, and forced displacement. She has served on the special commission leading to the design of the first-ever CSWE Macro Specialization Curricular Guide. She has also served as a consultant for the Public Health Social Work working group on moving public health social work forward with field recommendations. Dr. Hicks is intimately acquainted with the Autism Spectrum Disorder community and has primary research interests in chronic caregiver stress, social determinants of adverse health/mental health outcomes in this population, and the role that community-led/ based participatory research can play in ameliorating these negative outcomes. Dr. Hicks received her Ph.D. in Social Work from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as well as a Master’s in Social Work with a certification in Health Disparities for the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.