Saida Abdi

Saida M. Abdi, PhD, LICSW, is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. She is a trained clinician and an expert in refugee trauma and resilience. She earned her PhD in sociology and Social work from Boston University. She also holds Masters of Social Work as well as a second Master’s degree in Communications from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Abdi has worked for more than 20 years with refugee and immigrant youth and families in the diaspora. Her area of focus is building individual, family and community resilience against violence. She is the co-developer of Community Connect, a multidisciplinary team-based intervention that worked with youth up to the age of 24 years of age who are at risk for violence of any type. She is also the Primary Investigator of the project, RAJO (Somali for hope) in Canada, funded by the Public Safety Agency in Canada to support positive outcomes for Somali-Canadian youth. This 5 year, multi-million-dollar project will be evaluated to test the impact of the intervention on youth outcomes. Dr. Abdi is the co-author of a recently published book, Mental Health Practice with Immigrant and Refugee Youth: A Socioecological Framework (American Psychological Association, 2020)