Matt Ignacio (Tohono O’odham) is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work. His research centers around the development of culturally grounded health promotion interventions in response to emergent health disparities, particularly among underrepresented and underserved communities, through the use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods. One branch of his research focuses specifically on behavioral and mental health issues, including developing, testing, and adapting substance misuse prevention interventions, including for urban Indigenous youth. The second branch of research centers around addressing and responding to health-related issues more generally, including COVID-19 and Long COVID impacts among racial and ethnic groups in Arizona (AZ). For example, a study he conceptualized, successfully completed, and co-authored with student researchers in two peer-review journals focused on the survival experiences of Indigenous adults living on an AZ Tribal reservation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This CBPR study, internally referred to as “Tribal Voices of Strength,” aimed to understand effective heath messaging strategies for internet and non-internet users; to report any current social and health-related issues as a result of COVID-19; and to describe effective cultural, spiritual, and community-based support systems utilized during the pandemic.
Current research projects include a National Institutes of Health R01-funded study focused on preventing vaping and substance misuse among urban Indigenous youth, titled “Leveraging Community-Engaged Research to Co-Create Youth Vaping Prevention with Urban Indigenous Communities of the Southwest” (Co-I Ignacio). This project is based on previous collaborations with the Phoenix Indian Center and aims to advance knowledge on salient risk and protective factors for urban Indigenous adolescents living in Tucson, Yuma, Phoenix, and Flagstaff. The study aims include adapting an evidence-based prevention intervention titled Living in 2 Worlds, to be tested among AZ urban Indigenous youth and parents across the state.
Last, with respect to teaching, Matt has received many ASU Professor of Impact Awards from students, the 2022 Watts College’s Emerging Public Service Educator Award, the 2024 National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Transformational Educator of the Year Award, from the NASW Arizona state chapter, and in 2025, he was nominated by students and received the ASU School of Social Work Instructor of the Year award. Also in 2025, he won the ASU Provost Teaching Award, which is considered to be the top teaching award across all of ASU.