Christina Miyawaki
Associate Professor
Email: cemiyawa@central.uh.edu
Room: 302 Social Work Building
Phone: 713-743-0320
Personal Statement
Dr. Miyawaki’s overall research has centered on the health and well-being of older adults of color and their family caregivers. Trained as a bilingual geriatric social worker, Dr. Miyawaki has first-hand working experience with family caregivers and their care recipients from a variety of racial/ethnic groups. As a gerontologist, she developed a strong foundation in health disparities research, especially focusing on Asian American (AA) populations. She has investigated how AA family caregivers’ physical and mental challenges are associated with care recipients’ health conditions including Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Recently Dr. Miyawaki has explored health disparities among older Vietnamese immigrants and refugees and their caregivers based on their culture. Dr. Miyawaki’s research interests arose from her clinical practice experience with family members across generations. She ensures that her research questions are relevant to social workers and their clients culturally, geographically, and generationally.
Dr. Miyawaki is also interested in population-based research. Starting as a research associate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Healthy Aging Research Network (HAN)(2010-2014) and later as an affiliate investigator with the CDC-Healthy Brain Research Network (HBRN)(2015-2019), she has explored investigating physical, mental, and cognitive health of older adults and their impacts on the health of their caregivers using large datasets in the U.S. Her collaborative work with CDC continues examining the impact of physical activities on the cognitive health of middle- to older-aged adults, and more recently the health of Baby boomer generation caregivers exclusively.
Education
PhD in Social Welfare, University of Washington
MSW, University of California, Berkeley
MA, San Francisco State University
Courses Taught
- SOCW 7305: Evaluation of Social Work Practice
- SOCW 7354: Spirituality and Aging
- SOCW 7361: Clinical Social Work Practice with Elders
Research Interests
Health disparities among older adults of color; health and acculturation, with a focus on immigrant caregivers of older adults; association of race and ethnicity with older adults’ health; health promotion and healthy aging.
Healthy Aging Resources in Vietnamese