Tiffany Luo, PhD, MSW, PPSC
Assistant Professor
Contact
Biography
Dr. Tiffany Luo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at Palo Alto University. Dr. Luo earned her PhD in Social Welfare, Master of Social Welfare (MSW), and BA in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. She is dedicated to advancing equity and inclusion in her teaching, clinical practice, and research.
Dr. Luo has social work experience in school settings, integrated behavioral health care clinics, community mental health, digital health, and program development and evaluation. She earned her Pupil Personnel Services Credential (PPSC) while working with San Francisco Unified School District, providing school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports, holding a caseload of students, and facilitating the newcomer program and weekly support groups for students. Her behavioral health service provision experience includes providing therapy and case management to patients at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford through an integrated behavioral health model.
In her teaching, Dr. Luo is passionate about employing inclusive teaching methods, embracing critical pedagogical approaches, and providing supportive mentorship to prepare social work students to deliver culturally responsive care to underserved populations. Dr. Luo is also an active researcher and previously led a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop and implement a digital health intervention to provide cognitive behavioral therapy and personalized health plans to medically underserved communities. She has published numerous articles about using technology in an equitable and socially just way to address health disparities and expand access to culturally responsive behavioral health services for racial and ethnic minority groups and immigrant populations.
Education
- PhD in Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley
- MSW, University of California, Berkeley
- Specialization: Strengthening Children, Youth and Families
- BA in Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
Areas of Expertise
Publications
- Arévalo Avalos, M., Rosales, K., Karr, C., Figueroa, C., Luo, T., Sudarshan, S., Yip, V., & Aguilera, A. (2025). Personalizing a mental health texting intervention using reinforcement learning. npj Mental Health Research, 4(1), 64.
- Luo, T. C. & Aguilera, A. (2023). Digital social work: Support at your fingertips. In The Routledge International Handbook of Digital Social Work (Chapter 40, pp. 491-504). Routledge.
- Figueroa, C. A., Murayama, H., Amorim, P. C., White, A., Quiterio, A., Luo, T., Aguilera, A., Smith, A., Lyles, C. R., Robinson, V., & von Vacano, C. (2022). Applying the digital health social justice guide. Frontiers in Digital Health, 4, 807886.
- Luo, T. C., Aguilera, A., Lyles, C. R., & Figueroa, C. A. (2021). Promoting physical activity through conversational agents: mixed methods systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(9), e25486.
- Figueroa, C. A., Luo, T. C., Jacobo, A., Munoz, A., Manuel, M., Chan, D., Canny, J., & Aguilera, A. (2021). Conversational physical activity coaches for Spanish and English speaking women: A user design study. Frontiers in Digital Health, 3, 747153.
- Figueroa, C. A., Luo, T., Aguilera, A., & Lyles, C. R. (2021). The need for feminist intersectionality in digital health. The Lancet Digital Health, 3(8), e526-e533.
- Aguilera, A., Hernandez-Ramos, R., Haro-Ramos, A. Y., Boone, C. E., Luo, T. C., Xu, J., Chakraborty, B., Karr, C., Darrow, S., & Figueroa, C. A. (2021). A text messaging intervention (StayWell at Home) to counteract depression and anxiety during COVID-19 social distancing: Pre-post study. JMIR Mental Health, 8(11), e25298.
- Figueroa, C. A., Hernandez-Ramos, R., Boone, C. E., Gómez-Pathak, L., Yip, V., Luo, T., Sierra, V., Xu, J., Chakraborty, B., Darrow, S., & Aguilera, A. (2021). A text messaging intervention for coping with social distancing during COVID-19 (StayWell at Home): Protocol for a randomized controlled trial. JMIR Research Protocols, 10(1), e23592.