Audrey Hai (Ph.D. ’20), MSW will return to the Forty Acres as an associate professor at The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Social Work.
Hai, who most recently served as an assistant professor at Tulane University, works at the intersection of substance use disorder, digital health innovation, and spirituality in social work. Drawing on intervention science, implementation science, and community-engaged research, she builds and implements effective interventions for people who need them most but can least reach them.
“Dr. Hai’s expertise in technology, substance misuse, and social work and spirituality strengthens our faculty and expands our teaching and research impact,” said Allan Cole, dean of UT Social Work. “I know she will make lasting and meaningful contributions to our School, the University and those we serve, and I look forward to having her on the Forty Acres.”
One of Dr. Hai’s current research projects, funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, develops a technology and spiritually enhanced intervention for Hispanic young adults with alcohol use disorder. The project aims to transform the underutilized evidence-based Twelve-Step Facilitation intervention into an engaging, accessible, and scalable smartphone app. She will also bring to UT another project, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, testing an innovative AI-enhanced, VR-delivered mindfulness intervention for people with HIV and substance use. Dr. Hai’s research articles have appeared in top behavioral health journals such as Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
Hai earned her MSW from the University of Southern California and practiced as a medical social worker in Los Angeles before moving to Austin for her doctoral studies at UT Social Work. She went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at the Boston University Center for Innovation in Social Work and Health, and she was also a selected training fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Enhanced Interdisciplinary Research Training Institute on Hispanic Drug Abuse.
“ Austin is where my research career began, so returning to the Forty Acres feels like coming home,” said Hai. “My work bridges two things people rarely put together, spirituality and technology, to bring effective treatment to communities that need it most. UT Social Work is where I first learned to see that intersection, and I’m grateful to build its next chapter here, alongside the mentors who trained me and the students who come next.”