Cindy C. Sangalang, PhD, MSW, is an assistant professor of Social Welfare and Asian American Studies at UCLA. Drawing on theory and knowledge across disciplines, her research examines how race, migration, and culture intersect to shape health outcomes and inequities for migrant and refugee communities, especially for Asian Americans.
A primary concern driving Dr. Sangalang’s research is understanding how Asian migrant communities articulate and are affected by trauma and stress, over time and intergenerationally. Her work also explores how histories of oppression within migrant and other minoritized communities are relevant for identifying and disrupting mechanisms by which structural inequalities influence health. Dr. Sangalang uses quantitative and qualitative methods as well as community-based participatory research approaches to elucidate questions within these core areas of interest.
Currently, she is leading a study in partnership with Filipino American community organizers to study the impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related stress and violence on Filipino American essential workers and their families.
Dr. Sangalang has been a principal investigator on research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the State of California. She earned her Ph.D. and Masters in Social Welfare from UCLA and trained as a postdoctoral fellow in health disparities research at Arizona State University. Previously she was on the faculty in Social Work at Arizona State University and at California State University, Los Angeles.
Visit Google Scholar for a full list of her publications.