Faculty Directory

Roc铆o Calvo

Professor

Founding Director, Latinx Leadership Initiative (LLI)

Assistant Dean, Community Engagement

Photo of Roc铆o Calvo

Roc铆o Calvo

Ph.D.

Contact

McGuinn Hall 304

Telephone: 617-552-0651

Email: rocio.calvo@bc.edu

Education

  • B.A., Salamanca University
  • M.A., Deusto University
  • Ph.D., Boston College

Research Interests

Immigrant incorporation, happiness, Latinx populations, social services

Expertise

  • Immigrants and Refugees
  • Latinx Communities
CV or Resume

Profile

Roc铆o Calvo is Professor of Global Practice, Assistant Dean of Community Engagement, and Founding Director of the Latinx Leadership Initiative at the Boston College School of Social Work. She also serves as Vice President of the Society for Social Work and Research.

Through the Latinx Leadership Initiative, Calvo works to transform outmoded care systems, practices, and programs that serve Latinx populations. Grounded in an asset-framed perspective, the initiative prepares bilingual and bicultural social workers to develop a nuanced understanding of the barriers that prevent communities from accessing resources for advancement and a deep knowledge of how best to implement evidence-based interventions that address systemic inequities.

Calvo's research focuses on improving access to social services for diverse Latinx populations, especially in healthcare and education.聽Using a community-centered approach, she partners with community organizations, government agencies, and nonprofit service providers to design and evaluate evidence-based interventions that respond directly to needs identified by the community. Her scholarship examines how social policies and community programs shape access to resources, civic participation, and health outcomes, with the goal of strengthening immigrant integration and promoting the well-being of the communities they join.

Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Boston Children鈥檚 Collaboration for Community Health, and Massachusetts General Brigham, among other funders.

In 2019, Calvo received the Distinguished Recent Contributions to Social Work Education Award from the Council of Social Work Education for her innovative contributions to improving the well-being of Latinx communities. In 2020, the LLI was selected as a National Example of Excellence in higher education for Latinos. In 2022, she received the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award for inspiring students to catalyze systemic change in underserved communities.

Selected Publications

Parchment, T.M. & Calvo, R. (2025). The need for culturally congruent supervision for Black and Latinx social workers.聽 Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 1, 1-4.

Figuereo, V., Rosales, R., Takeuchi, D., & Calvo, R. (2025). What race am I? Factors associated with racial self-classification among US Latinx adults. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race. 2025;22(2):215-236. doi:10.1017/S1742058X25000050

Scrivano, R. M., van de Water, B. J., Rueras, N., Alfonso, J., McManama O'Brien, K. H., Soto, X., Caumeran, V. J. S., Campos, B. M., Mancusi, M., Diehl, B., Southwick, E., Moreno, E., Bora, C., Armbruster, S., Abuelezam, N. N., Calvo, R., Haneuse, S., & Davison, K. K. (2025). Motivational Interviewing for Vaccine Uptake in Latinx Adults (MI Vacuna): Study protocol for a pragmatic multiple-period cluster-randomized crossover trial. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 155, 107987.

Selected Appointments & Awards

2020:聽National Example of Excellence in Education. Latinx Leadership Initiative

2022:听Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award.

2026: Vice-President, Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR)

Selected Grants

2025 to 2026:聽Principal Investigator.聽Advancing Equity in Urban Schools by聽Reimagining Behavioral Health Services. Funded by the Spencer Foundation Vision Grant. ($75,000)

2023 to 2025: Principal Investigator.聽BD-24-1022-DMH08-8210C-89673.聽DMH Behavioral Health Paid Internship聽Program.聽Funded by the Commonwealth聽of Massachusetts聽Department of Mental Health ($2,500,000)

2022 to 2025:聽Multi-PI: Calvo, Davison, & Haneuse. 1R01NR020482-01A1.聽Leveraging Community-based Behavioral Health to Increase Vaccine Uptake in Latinx Adults with Mental Illness.聽Funded by the聽National Institute of Nursing Research ($2,800,000;聽Percentile 4).聽

2022 to 2025:聽Principal Investigator.聽Implementing an Integrated Supervision Initiative (ISI)聽at Boston Public Schools (BPS). Funded by the Boston Children鈥檚 Collaboration for Community Health ($790,000).

2022 to 2024:聽Principal Investigator. Developing a Culturally Congruent Supervision Model for Agencies that聽Serve Latinx Families.聽Funded by the聽Accelerate the Future聽Foundation ($250,000).

2021 to 2024:聽Principal Investigator. 天美传媒appSSW/ Mass General Brigham Community Fellows. Funded by Mass General Brigham ($600,000).

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