Liza Hita

Liza Hita relationally explores the sociocultural imaginary as a decolonial and liberatory scholar committed to ecological care. She is a clinical associate professor of psychology, associate director of academic programs in the School of Social and Behavior Sciences in New College, and an affiliated scientist with the Research and Education Advancing Children's Health (REACH) Institute. 

Liza engages in community-based participatory research focused on the dissemination and implementation of preventive interventions for families experiencing major life transitions, including high-conflict families (Family Transitions Guide), separating and divorced parents (New Beginnings Program), bereaved caregivers (Resilient Parenting for Bereaved Families), and families impacted by incarceration (Caring for the Caregivers). She also studies community-led cultural adaptation processes and counselor training, integrating them into her current research and practice on the online administration and cultural resonance of evidence-based parenting interventions and creating sustainable community-embedded supervision models. Her most recent exploration, Wayfinding Grief, focuses on cultural bereavement and ecological grief with Indigenous communities experiencing geocultural loss. Liza is a Climate and Community Hub co-visioner, foregrounding Indigenous perspectives in climate science. She also directs the Families in Transition Co(Lab), which focuses on stories of caregiving and resilience in the face of change, centering relationship-building and the lived experiences of the people she serves.

Her community work bridges health disparities through culturally restorative, holistic practices. She is a full-spectrum birth worker and a student of Batok/Patik, which is the traditional healing practice of tattooing in the Philippines. Liza also works in Perryville Women's Prison alongside Indigenous womxn doing cultural programming with A Good Relative, a group she co-created to provide venues for idea incubation, resource sharing, and collective dreaming. 

Liza's ASU service has included being a Dean's fellow for New College, the director of digital innovation and inclusion for the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the director of the digital-immersion psychology BA/BS program. She was a Universal Learner fellow, partnering in the wide-scale dissemination of multidimensional courses accessible to everyone beyond ASU, and is a Study Hall content creator. She also served as the faculty co-lead for the DEI Core of the Maternal Child Health Translational Research Team in the College of Health Solutions. She is a past-president of the Faculty Women of Color Caucus, and a member of the New College Anti-Racism Council (NewARC).