Duy Nguyen, MSW, PhD

Associate Professor & Director of PhD Program

EMAIL duy.nguyen@yu.edu
OFFICE PHONE 646-592-6674
OFFICE ADDRESS Belfer 909B
Duy Nguyen, MSW, PhD
AREAS OF EXPERTISE Research
FACULTY ROLE/TYPE Full-time Faculty
PROGRAM PhD in Social Welfare
EDUCATION Ph.D., Columbia University
MSW, Washington University in St. Louis
BA, Washington University in St. Louis

Duy Nguyen, MSW, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Ph.D. Program Director at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work. Over his academic career, he has taught master’s and doctoral level courses in research, statistics, and human behavior. From 2018-2021, he directed the SAMHSA-funded Minority Fellowship Program at the Council on Social Work Education. The initiative increases the number of master’s and doctoral-level social workers to address the mental health and substance use needs of racial/ethnic minority populations.

A gerontological social work researcher, his interdisciplinary, collaborative research spans the use of existing data and community-based research to address the health and mental health needs of older Asian Americans. Currently, he is working on a project to review the archival records of the Jewish Federation and Catholic Charities and community-based organizations in Southern California to investigate how the organizations addressed Vietnamese refugees’ traumatic experiences.

His grant-funded research to date using existing data has revealed how sociocultural factors, especially differences among Asian ethnic groups and the aging process, affect health and mental health service use. This research has identified the need for targeted, ethnic-specific, and culturally-informed intervention studies to reduce health and mental health disparities in this population. With community-partners, he conducts mixed methods, community-based research that focuses on the social, cultural, and contextual contributors to health, mental health, and help-seeking.

A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Dr. Nguyen earned his BA and MSW degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of American and the Society for Social Work and Research.