Aimee Hilado, PhD, LCSW, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, and Director of the Refugee Wellness Laboratory, where her work focuses on migration trauma and its impact on refugee and immigrant families with very young children. She has been a member of the ZERO TO THREE Board of Directors since 2024 and is a former ZERO TO THREE Fellow.
Contributions to the Field
Dr. Hilado is a licensed clinical social worker and social work scholar with extensive experience in refugee mental health, community-engaged research, and implementation science focused on children, youth, and families across resettlement settings.
Through research, training, and intervention initiatives conducted in partnership with multilingual refugee communities and refugee-serving organizations, her work focuses on strengthening culturally responsive mental health and psychosocial supports, informing systems change, and translating community-informed evidence into practical strategies for families, schools, public health systems, and refugee-serving programs.
Affiliations
- Board President, Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health
- Board of Directors, Bright Promises Foundation
- Faculty Affiliate, University of Chicago Center for Race, Politics, and Culture
- Fellow, University of Chicago Center for Health Administration Studies
Current Research
Dr. Hilado’s research focuses on promoting mental wellness and healthy adjustment among refugee and immigrant communities in the United States, particularly families with young children. Her work examines how community organizations, schools, health systems, and peer support networks can better support newcomer families during resettlement.
In collaboration with ZERO TO THREE, she has implemented Refugee Parent Cafés and community-led support spaces that bring refugee caregivers together to strengthen social connections, parenting support, and family well-being.
Her broader work explores how culturally grounded healing practices across migration settings can help shape more responsive and accessible mental health care in the United States.
Recognition and Thought Leadership
In 2026, Dr. Hilado was named a Mellon Foundation Emerging Faculty Leader in recognition of her impactful community-engaged research and practice supporting immigrant and refugee communities in Chicago.
She has authored or coauthored peer-reviewed publications, practice-based reports, and community-engaged scholarship focused on refugee mental health, family well-being, resettlement systems, and culturally responsive approaches to care. She is the editor of Models for Practice with Immigrants and Refugees: Collaboration, Cultural Awareness, and Integrative Theory (Sage, 2017) and contributed chapters to Refugee Mental Health (American Psychological Association, 2021).
Her work has been cited in national policy forums, including the Migration Policy Institute and the Urban Institute, as well as in media outlets such as NPR, Fast Company, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, the Chicago Tribune, and WBEZ Chicago.
