Vibha Kaushik

Dr. Kaushik’s research expertise is in the area of settlement and integration of skilled immigrants. Her recent study is one of the few to focus solely on immigrants chosen under the Federal Skilled Workers Program. This research identifies specific challenges and opportunities for improving immigrant services and supports, as well as invites advocacy from social justice professional for skilled immigrants 

Dr. Kaushik’s current project Transforming the Field Education Landscape (TFEL) aims to identify, document, and exchange innovative and promising practices in social work field education across Canada and inform the development of sustainable models for field education through a national study. Based on her expertise, Dr. Kaushik is well positioned to co-develop programming for social work field education in the newcomer service sector. As Program Lead, she will facilitate discussions between students, field educators, practitioners, and newcomers that will include a multi-directional exchange of ideas to develop and improve field education practices and methods to support the newcomer service sector. Outcomes from these discussions and other national study surveys and dialogues will help inform the development of innovative field education opportunities and creative skills building and training resources for social work students who plan to practice in the newcomer serving sector and for educators who offer field education and supervision in the sector.

In addition to immigrant integration and field education, Dr. Kaushik’s research interests also include aging and age-friendly communities. Currently, she is actively engaged in arts-informed, community-based participatory research with a vulnerable sub-population of older adults—those with histories of housing insecurity, homelessness, and poverty. The project aims to build capacity for promising practices that support older adults experiencing homelessness.

With her Innovation Fellowship, Dr. Kaushik will continue to develop a comprehensive field education experience that meets the needs of students, field educators, and clients in the newcomer service sector. She has proposed to explore these ideas in a manuscript abstract and has received an invitation from Advances in Social Work journal to submit the full manuscript as first author for their special issue.