Sandy Magaña, PhD, MSW
Sandy Magaña, PhD, MSW
Professor, Departments of Disability and Human Development and Occupational Therapy
University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Sandy Magaña, PhD, MSW is a Professor in the Departments of Disability and Human Development and Occupational Therapy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is also a Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar. Dr. Magaña holds a Masters in Social Work from Cal State San Bernardino and received her Ph.D. from the Heller Graduate School of Social Policy at Brandeis University. She completed post doctoral training from the Waisman Center NICHD-funded Post Doctoral Program in Developmental Disabilities Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Magaña was on the faculty of the UW-Madison School of Social Work for 12 years before her current position at UIC.
Her research focus is on the cultural context of families who care for persons with disabilities and mental illness across the life course. Dr. Magaña’s current research includes a National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) funded research and training center on Family Support, and an intervention study designed to provide parent training to Latino families of children with autism spectrum disorders also funded by NIDRR.