About

Dr. Gino Aisenberg is an associate professor and co-director of the Latino Center for Health at the University of Washington School of Social Work. He is a bilingual and bicultural Latino mental health researcher whose work focuses on three interrelated areas: traumatic exposure of children and families to community violence, depression care for adults, and evidence-based practice. Born and raised in South-Central Los Angeles, Dr. Aisenberg has extensive clinical experience working with child abuse and community violence experienced by African-American and Latino children and families. He also has specialized training in cognitive behavioral therapy for low-income individuals suffering from depression and has worked in schools, hospitals, and community-based organizations. His teaching, research, and scholarship are deeply informed by culture and context, with a staunch commitment to marginalized and diverse populations to promote inclusion and address disparities in mental health service access and utilization. Dr. Aisenberg is engaged in partnerships with community-based agencies serving rural and marginalized communities and serves as chair of the School’s Community-Centered Integrative Practice Concentration. He has held leadership roles such as associate dean of the UW Graduate School, where he promoted diversity and inclusion across graduate programs, and was the inaugural leadership professor. As founding co-director of the Latino Center for Health, launched in 2014 and funded by the Washington state legislature in 2015, he has contributed to advancing research and policy efforts aimed at improving the health and well-being of Latinos in Washington state.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Medicine
• Environmental health
• Geography
• Gender studies
• Psychology
• Nursing
• Psychiatry
• Gerontology
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• Promoting mental health in Latina immigrant women: Results from the Amigas Latinas Motivando el Alma intervention trial

  Social Science & Medicine · 2023 · 19 citations

  • Sociology
  • Gerontology
  • Medicine
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The home air in agriculture pediatric intervention (HAPI) trial: Rationale and methods

  Contemporary Clinical Trials · 2020 · 11 citations

  • Medicine
  • Environmental health
  • Nursing
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Improving oral health in migrant and underserved populations: evaluation of an interactive, community-based oral health education program in Washington state

  BMC Oral Health · 2019-02-13 · 37 citations

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVES: Oral health is one of the greatest unmet health needs of migrant farmworkers and many migrant workers lack basic oral health knowledge. This paper presents evaluation results for an oral health education program designed to both increase knowledge concerning oral health practices and to gain a better understanding of the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors regarding oral health among migrant workers. METHODS: We used a pre-post uncontrolled design to assess the impact of the education program on participant knowledge about oral health practices. Changes in knowledge were assessed using a paper and pencil survey given to participants before the session began (pre) and at the end of the session (post). The pre-post survey was supplemented by qualitative information in the form of participant self-reported barriers and facilitators, and figure drawings illustrating their feelings about the state of their own oral health. RESULTS: There were 311 participants in 12 workshops held in 2017 throughout Washington State. There were statistically significant increases in knowledge for all of the pre/post survey questions. Questions with particularly large improvements included: the results of having a mouth infection, factors causing oral health problems, and whether children in low-income families experience more tooth decay. CONCLUSIONS: An interactive, lay-led oral health education program can be an effective way to increase oral health knowledge in migrant populations. Recommendations for similar programs include using interactive approaches to engage participants, being open to learning and changing your own thinking, and using lay leaders for the education sessions.

  PublisherDOI

• The Home Environment and Caregiver Stress of Children with Asthma in Low Income Rural Households

  ISEE Conference Abstracts · 2018-09-24

  articleSenior author

  Urban studies demonstrate adverse impacts of home environmental characteristics and caregiver stress on asthma morbidity. We characterize these features at baseline for participants in a rural asthma intervention study (Home Air in Agriculture Pediatric Intervention – HAPI). Staff administer a multi-component stress survey and conduct home environmental assessments. Micropem samplers are placed in the child sleeping area and home living area. Seventy-five child subjects completed the baseline assessments. All are Latino, age 6-12 years, and reside in non-smoking households. Two week geometric mean (GSD) PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations in the sleeping area were 10.6 ug/m3 (2.2) and 19.9 ug/m3 (1.8). Living room PM2.5 was 13.4 ug/m3 (2.2). Visible mold was evident in 61% of homes, detectable by odor in 24%. Other common triggers identified were bleach/ammonia cleaner use (93%), air freshener use (59%), carpeting in the sleeping area (56%), rodent pests (44%), pesticide use indoors (35%), and indoor cat/dog (33%). Few had allergen mattress covers (12%). Approximately one third of caregivers scored in the higher ranges of perceived stress (PSS>15). The child’s asthma reportedly caused stress in the family for 41%. Caregivers expressed lack of confidence in handling a severe attack (51%) and concerns for adverse effects of long-term asthma medication use (70%). Hispanic stress inventory components revealed high stress for some participants related to language (19%) and immigration (16%). While understudied, children in rural settings, including immigrant families, may face comparable or higher burden of home conditions, stressors, and resource limitations that threaten asthma control. Measured indoor particulate matter concentrations are lower than most urban studies but consistent with observations in other rural or nonsmoking homes. HAPI will test a community based home visiting and education program alone or with HEPA air cleaners on asthma outcomes in this setting.

  PublisherDOI

• Perfect Storm

  Harvard Review of Psychiatry · 2015-01-01

  article

  Epelbaum, Claudia MD; Orozco-Hershey, Araceli LICSW; Boyd, J. Wesley MD, PhD; Bonilla, Pedro MD; Aisenberg, Gino PhD, MSW; Givon, Lior MD, PhDEditor(s): Givon, Lior MD, PhD; Editor Author Information

  PublisherDOI

• Front Matter

  Journal of Family Strengths · 2011-12-21

  paratextOpen access

  Title pages, table of contents, etc.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ethnic/Racial Diversity and Posttraumatic Distress in the Acute Care Medical Setting

  Psychiatry · 2008-09-01 · 52 citations

  article

  Recent commentary has advocated for epidemiological investigation as a foundational science for understanding disparities in the delivery of mental health care and for the development of early trauma–focused interventions. Few acute care investigations have examined the diversity of ethnic/racial heritages or compared variations in early posttraumatic distress in representative samples of injured trauma survivors. Hospitalized injury survivors at two United States level I trauma centers were randomly approached in order to document linguistic and ethnic/racial diversity. Approximately 12% of patients approached were non–English speaking with 16 languages represented. English speaking, inpatients were screened for posttraumatic stress disorder, peritraumatic dissociative, and depressive symptoms. For 269 English speaking study participants, ethnic/racial group status was clearly categorized into one group for 72%, two groups for 25%, and three groups for 3% of participants. Regression analyses that adjusted for relevant clinical and demographic characteristics revealed that relative to whites, patients from American Indian, African American, Hispanic, and Asian heritages demonstrated significant elevations in one or more posttraumatic symptom clusters. A remarkable diversity of heritages was identified, and posttraumatic distress was elevated in ethnic/racial minority patients. Policy–relevant clinical investigations that combine evidence–based treatments, bilingual/bicultural care–management strategies, and support for trauma center organizational capacity building may be required in order to enhance the quality of mental health care for diverse injured trauma survivors.

  PublisherDOI

• Diverse Sociopolitical Reactions to the 9/11 Attack and Associations with Religious Coping

  Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work Social Thought · 2006-11-28 · 3 citations

  article

  Abstract The September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks in New York City and Washington, DC brought a historical terror to the United States. The aftermath of 9/11 will be felt for decades in the way Americans view the world and the national political sphere. Yet, it is unclear in what direction 9/11 impacted American sociopolitical reactions and how their styles of spiritual or religious coping in their general life might influence such reactions. On the basis of the literature on terrorism, we developed a scale of sociopolitical reactions to the 9/11 attacks using a student sample at three American universities. The results indicate that responses to 9/11 are diverse and patterns of sociopolitical reactions are associated with gender, years of education, religiousness, peritraumatic emotional response, being a veteran, being close to a 9/11 victim, concerns about future attacks, and two types of religious/spiritual coping. Our study calls for more research that investigates sociopolitical reactions and the role of faith matters in an era of international terrorism.

  PublisherDOI

• Behavior Problems of Maltreated Children Receiving In-Home Child Welfare Services

  Journal of Family Strengths · 1999-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  This study evaluates the level of behavior problems in a previously little studied group—children with founded cases of abuse and neglect receiving child welfare services in their own homes. A sample of 149 maltreated children, living at home, were evaluated on the CBCL as they entered a service program to which they were referred by a large public child protective service system. These children were found to have elevated levels of behavior problems, with 43.6% scoring in the problematic range, a rate similar to children entering foster care. Practice and policy implications of these findings are discussed and highlighted.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ferol E. Mennen

  University of Southern California

  965 shared

• William Meezan

  965 shared

• Jacquelyn McCroskey

  University of Southern California

  965 shared

• Shelley Leavitt

  961 shared

• Kathleen Wells

  961 shared

• John Poertner

  961 shared

• Gerald Vest

  New Mexico State University

  961 shared

• Juan Paz

  961 shared

Awards & honors

• University of Washington Distinguished Teaching Award (2009)