Banghwa Lee Casado, Ph.D., MSW
Assistant Professor
University of Maryland School of Social Work

Dr. Casado is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She received a B.A. in Sociology and gerontology certificate from the Georgia State University, and her MSW and Ph.D. degree from the University of Houston, Graduate College of Social.

Dr. Casado received numerous gerontological awards, including the John A. Hartford Doctoral Fellowship in Geriatric Social Work, Somers Aging and Long-Term Care Research Internship Award, and AARP Andrus Foundation Scholarship. She also received a Council of Social Work Education Minority Research Fellowship funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. As part of the training for the Research Fellowship, she worked with an interdisciplinary research team at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in evaluating the effectiveness and feasibility of an evidence-based depression intervention program Healthy IDEAS. Healthy IDEAS, one of the Evidence-Based Disease Prevention Programs funded by the Administration on Aging, is a community-based depression intervention program designed to detect and reduce the severity of depressive symptoms in older adults with chronic health conditions and functional limitations.

Dr. Casado’s research interests are centered around 1) informal caregiving, 2) formal care for community-dwelling older adults with disabilities and their family caregivers, 3) minority aging, and 4) development and evaluation of  cultural appropriate community-based intervention programs for ethnic minority older adults and their family caregivers. She plans to continue her research in these areas and is currently working on a research project investigating the factors affecting informal caregiving and utilization of home and community-based care for older adults in immigrant populations.