Jo Brocato

Jo Brocato, Ph.D., LCSW, CAP
Jo Brocato is a professor in the School of Social Work at California State University, Long Beach, where she has taught since 2008. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Florida International University, and her career spans academic, clinical, and community practice settings. Her teaching and advising focus on substance use disorders, group interventions, research methods, and policy analysis.

Her research explores harm reduction, drug policy reform, psychedelic mental health care, and social justice issues through the lens of systemic race, class, and gendered oppression.

Dr. Brocato has published widely on substance use, treatment retention, and HIV prevention, with recent work examining therapeutic alliance in teletherapy and health equity in mental health care.

In addition to her academic roles, she has directed outpatient and residential substance use treatment programs, served as a program evaluator, and contributed extensively as a reviewer for scholarly journals. She brings a structured, hands-on approach to mentoring, guiding students through qualitative and quantitative theses, policy analysis, systematic reviews, and grant writing.

 

  • M.S.W. Florida International University, 1988
  • Ph.D. Florida International University, 2004

Dr. Brocato's current interests are in the following areas:

  • Substance misuse
  • Drug policy
  • Administration
  • Social justice
  • Poverty
  • The empirical evaluation of community-based harm reduction interventions

  • Substance Abuse Treatment
  • Mental Health
  • Social Policy

  • Assessment and Treatment of Substance Abuse
  • Thesis Advising