Social Work Professor Named to Human Rights Commission
Mark Lusk, Ed.D., MSW, has been appointed to the Human Rights Commission of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) - an international body that incorporates 84 national social work organizations representing over a half million social workers globally. The Human Rights Commission is the division of the International Federation of Social Workers that coordinates human rights advocacy and education.
His appointment to the commission follows his work over the past decade on behalf of migrants and refugees from Latin America. This year, Professor Lusk worked with the National Association of Social Workers and the Texas Chapter of NASW to mobilize over 200 licensed social work therapists to provide assistance to migrants and refugees who are in detention or under federal supervision.
Dr. Lusk recently offered his perspective on immigrant family separations in a story titled, “Texas Social Workers Act against the Separation of Immigrant Families,” on the International Federation of Social Workers’ (IFSW) website.
The story highlights the actions taken by Texas social workers to provide support services for migrant families. Lusk, whose research focuses on trauma and resilience among refugees from Mexico and Central America, discusses the consequences of forced separation on the mental health of migrant and refugee children.
To read the story on the IFSW website, click here.
Lusk, a Provost’s Faculty Fellow for Civic Engagement, joined the UTEP faculty in 2007. Previously he served as Associate Provost for International Affairs at the University of Georgia. Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, he has spent two decades in South America and was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Universidad Católica del Peru in Lima and the Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
Lusk also has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on several grants from state and federal agencies and private foundations, including the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, and the Programa de Investigación en Migración y Salud (PIMSA).
