Matt Ignacio (Tohono O’odham) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work. His research is centered 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 is specifically focused 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 is centered 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, completed, and co-authored two peer-review publications with student researchers 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, report any current social and health-related issues as a result of COVID-19, and 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, to adapt an evidence-based prevention intervention titled, Living in 2 Worlds, and tested among AZ urban Indigenous youth and parents across the state.
Lastly, with respect to teaching, Matt has received many ASU Professor of Impact Awards from students, 2022 Watts College’s Emerging Public Service Educator Award from the college, 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 Year award, and also in 2025, won the ASU Provost Teaching Award, which is considered to be the "top" teaching award across all of ASU.