Jennifer M. Lilly

PhD in City, Culture, & Community - Social Work, Tulane University, 2020
MSW, Loyola University Chicago, 2013
MA in Women's Studies & Gender Studies, Loyola University Chicago, 2013
BA, Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Central Florida, 2007

Digital narrative media (methods and interventions)

Suicide prevention

Youth mental and sexual health

Knowledge translation

Media representations of social workers

Jenn M. Lilly, PhD, LMSW, is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Social Service at Fordham University. Her research and teaching focus on storytelling for social justice, with an emphasis on participatory, arts-based, and qualitative methods. Most of her work addresses issues impacting Latine migrant communities, building on more than a decade of practice experience in the U.S. and Latin America. Before joining academia, Dr. Lilly worked in the non-profit sector in roles spanning community organizing, program management, positive youth development, and participatory action research in settings including Chicago, New Orleans, New York, Chiapas (Mexico), and Lake Atitlán (Guatemala).

Dr. Lilly’s scholarship centers on two interconnected areas: promoting youth mental and sexual health, and advancing digital narrative media as a tool for health equity and advocacy. Guided by a commitment to making research meaningful, accessible, and community-driven, she partners with young people to co-create research products and intervention strategies that address issues of concern to them. Her current project develops a narrative media mobile app designed to empower Latine parents to support their daughters’ mental health and prevent suicide. She also leads a line of research examining representations of social workers in television dramas. Her work has been published in leading journals, including Families in Society and Children and Youth Services Review, and she has co-produced multiple media projects that amplify the voices and experiences of Latine migrant communities. Dr. Lilly's research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation, and National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families.

As an educator, Dr. Lilly builds a vibrant classroom community where students feel safe to take risks, connect deeply with one another, and form relationships that last beyond the course. She teaches across the social work curriculum—including Contemporary Social Policy, Advanced Integrated Policy Practice, Social Work Practice with Individuals, Families, and Groups Across the Lifespan, Social Work with Organizations and Communities, and Qualitative Inquiry in Social Work Practice—and finds teaching both energizing and inspiring, continually learning alongside her students. Her classes combine intellectual rigor with warmth and collaboration, inviting every student to engage fully and contribute meaningfully to a shared educational journey.

Lilly, J.M., Emerick, M.C., Tice-Brown, D. & Pace, S. (2025). “How to make it out alive”: A strengths-based analysis of Latinas’ adolescent sexual health experiences. Community Health Equity Research and Policy, 45(2), 153-165. https://doi.org/10.1177/2752535X241260444

Lilly, J.M. (2025). “I learned to bottle up my feelings from a young age”: A narrative analysis of Latina young peple’s family mental health socialization. Families in Society, 106(1), 135-157. https://doi.org/10.1177/10443894231218298
   Awarded Best Early Career Scholar Article

Lilly, J.M., Almanzar, D., Pace, S.R., & Bryant, D.D. (2024). Digital zines as mental and sexual health communication tools for Latina teens: Format and content acceptability and initial findings. Health Promotion Practice., 26(5), 926-945. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399241300570

Lilly, J.M. (2024). Barriers and bridges to well-being for Latinx immigrant youth in a new Latinx destination: A digital narrative inquiry. Children and Youth Services Review, 160, Article 107614. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107614

Lilly, J.M. (2024). “Putting my life into a story”: A preliminary evaluation of a digital narrative intervention combining participatory video and narrative therapy. Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology, 15(2), 50-61. https://doi.org/10.33043/JSACP.15.2.50-61

Pace, S.R., Lilly, J.M., & Emerick, M.C. (2024). Latina young people’s perspectives on healthy romantic relationships: A strengths-based, qualitative inquiry. Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, 23(2), 79-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332691.2023.2292020

Lilly, J.M., Pace, S., & Emerick, M.C. (2023). “¿Y tu novio? Where’s your boyfriend?”: A cultural-ecological analysis of Latinas’ narratives of teen dating experiences. Journal of Adolescent Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/07435584231207627

2025-2027: Principal Investigator, A Narrative Media Suicide Prevention Intervention for Latina Adolescents and Parents/Caregivers
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Loan Repayment Program for Health Disparities Research (LRP-HDR) from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

2025: Fellow, Mentoring Immersion for Early Career Researchers Program
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)

2024: Fellow, Economic Mobility Early Career Mentoring Institute
University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty, University of California, Davis Center for Poverty & Inequality Research, & National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families

2021-2024: Principal Investigator, Health Opportunities for Latina Adolescents and Young Adults
Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation, Faculty Grant Program 

Advanced Integrated Policy Practice

Contemporary Social Welfare Policy

Social Work Practice with Families and Groups across the Life Span

Social Work Practice with Organizations & Communities

Qualitative Inquiry in Social Work Practice