Dr. Natasha Mendoza is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University and serves as Senior Associate Director for Academic Affairs. Her work centers on building coherent academic systems that support faculty effectiveness, student learning, and institutional accountability within a shared governance environment.
Dr. Mendoza earned her PhD in social work from The Ohio State University and completed postdoctoral training at the Clinical and Research Institute on Addictions at SUNY Buffalo. She has held multiple leadership roles spanning academic affairs and research administration, including Director of the Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy. She currently serves as Lead Faculty for the Substance Use and Recovery Support Initiatives office, directing federally funded initiatives across HHS Region 9 that have trained thousands of behavioral health providers statewide.
Specializing in substance use and co-occurring disorders, Dr. Mendoza’s work emphasizes evidence-informed practice, harm reduction principles, and workforce development across complex service systems. Her applied research and leadership connect crisis response, treatment, health care, legal, and child welfare settings, with a focus on translating research into scalable training and policy-relevant outcomes. Dr. Mendoza’s scholarship also examines the intersections of wellness, identity, and structural inequity, with particular attention to how power, culture, gender, and sexuality shape behavioral health outcomes. Her perspective is grounded in community-based research and systems-level analysis, emphasizing the relational and institutional contexts in which individuals and organizations operate.
As an educator and academic leader, Dr. Mendoza is deeply committed to faculty development and student success. She brings a clinical foundation and strong research orientation to her leadership, enabling her to bridge faculty perspectives across disciplines and roles. Her work supports the preparation of students and practitioners through rigorous, compassionate, and evidence-based approaches that advance both individual well-being and the strength of the behavioral health workforce.