Darlene Xiomara Rodriguez

Darlene Xiomara Rodriguez , PhD, MSW, MPA, CNP is an Associate Professor of Social Work and Human Services who researches nonprofit and government agencies’ roles in facilitating immigrant integration. As a multilingual, immigrant scholar, she has conducted community needs assessments, field surveys, program evaluations, policy analyses, and scoping reviews of the literature on immigration federalism and its impact on individual and community wellbeing. In addition to doing research on immigrants and refugees, she engages her research teams in conducting community-engaged research with and for youth, women, racial/ethnic minorities, and veterans.

Her work has been featured in high-impact journals such as Health Promotion Practice, Journal of Community Practice, Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, Journal of Public Management and Social Policy, and Journal of Urban Affairs. She has published over 50 academic and grey research peer-reviewed articles, often with community partners and students as co-authors. In addition to these research products and over 100 conference presentations conducted in either English or Spanish, Dr. Rodriguez has also led the production of large-scale research products, some of which include the following. Co-editor of Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from an Atlanta High School (Wise Ink, 2018; Ingram Consortium, 2019), which is complemented by a traveling art exhibit based on the book that has been experienced by over 2 million people. She was also the co-editor for Integration and Receptivity in Immigrant Gateway Metro Regions in the United States (Lexington Books, 2024). On January 20, 2025, the special issue she co-edited on Immigration and Immigrant Community Engagement with the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship was published. The International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE), selected the special issue as the winner of the 2025 IARSLCE Publication of the Year Award.

For additional details about her research, teaching, service, and other engagements, contact her at darlene.rodriguez@kennesaw.edu or connect with her on LinkedIn.