Yamile M. Martí  is a doctoral student at the Columbia University School of Social Work (CUSSW). She received her master’s in social work from CUSSW in 2005, her master’s in psychology of education  at Teachers College in 2008 and holds a B.A. from Haverford College in Pennsylvania. 
Ms. Martí has always been strongly involved with service at the community and at individual level. She was granted a Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship and conducted research on community empowerment in Puerto Rico. She also developed and conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Special Communities Agency of the government of Puerto Rico which assists impoverished communities through education and recreational programs, as well as building infrastructure.

As a student at CUSSW, Ms. Martí worked at the Methadone Clinic at Bellevue Hospital and with Court Appointed Special Advocates of NYC.  Upon completion of her MSW, she spent two years as the coordinator of the Community Achievement Project in the Schools (CAPS) at Goddard Riverside Community Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. She managed an elementary school based program that provided individual, group counseling and family services for 90 children and their families. She also organized and facilitated educational and recreational activities for the school families and supervised staff.

While enrolled at Teachers College, Ms. Martí worked as a research assistant for Professor Lisa Miller in the implementation and evaluation of a teacher training intervention designed to empower teachers. Additionally, she worked with Dr. Katherine Shear of CUSSW in a five year randomized control trial funded by the National Institute of Mental Health designed to compare the effectiveness of Interpersonal therapy versus Complicated Grief treatment.

Ms. Martí has worked at the individual, community and policy levels and within mental health organizations, schools, community centers, and government agencies.

Ms. Martí's research interests include the development of resiliency and coping skills for children and women in crisis or facing adversity, the implementation and evaluation of interventions that foster positive mental health in children and women and the role of psychosocial factors on children’s and women’s mental health.  Ms. Martí has also conducted research on intimate partner violence, contraception and economic empowerment among  Jordanian women. Currently, she is collaborating in a psycho-education intervention for young women who are pregnant and in foster care and conducting a qualitative study on the experiences of foster care mothers.

Ms. Martí was selected as one of the five recipients of the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Minority Fellowship Program. The fellowship is designed for social workers who are preparing for leadership, teaching, consulting, training, policy development, and administration in mental health and substance abuse with ethnic minorities.

Last updated December 20, 2010 .