Rose Miola
Email: miolare@vcu.edu
Pronouns: She/her
Rose Miola is a Ph.D. candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work and a licensed clinical social worker in Virginia. Rose is a scholar-practitioner motivated by her clinical experiences working as a trauma therapist. She recognized a gap in clinical interventions regarding how to support meaning-making when trauma, specifically sexual violence, disrupts one’s existential paradigm. Her dissertation research seeks to fill this gap with a community-based photovoice project designed to understand how survivors of sexual violence experience the process of posttraumatic growth, and how they can make meaning and move toward positive change after trauma.
Rose served as a mental health and substance use clinician for several years prior to beginning the doctoral program, and has worked with a number of different communities and contexts, including the urban environments of Boston and Richmond, and rural settings in western Colorado. In all of these contexts, trauma diagnosis, education and treatment have been crucial to the healing and well-being of clients, thus driving Rose’s desire to research interventions and expand access to trauma treatment.
Rose received her Master of Social Work at Boston College School of Social Work (2017). Her love of education began with liberal arts, and she completed a Master of Theological Studies from Boston College School of Theology & Ministry (2015) and a Bachelor of Arts in English and theology from Loyola University Maryland (2012).
Rose is a mother of two young children and enjoys watching them discover the world. She loves hiking and kayaking, reading poetry, watching live music and exploring the eclectic food scene in Richmond.
Areas of interest
- Community-Based Participatory Research
- Mental Health Treatment
- Trauma Education
- Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing
- Anti-Racist Social Work Practice
- Substance Use and Addictive Behaviors
- Violence Prevention and Response
Education and credentials
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Virginia
M.S.W., Boston College School of Social Work
M.T.S., Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
B.A., English & theology, Loyola University Maryland
Work
Selected publications
Miola, R. E., McGinnis, H.A., Kim, A. Y., Cho, S., Kim, S., Baden, A. L., & Kim, J. (2026). Exploring the role of critical consciousness on complex trauma for adopted adults. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.
Brown, K., Lazarus, K., Williams, C. D., Miola, R. E., Stokes, A., Kerr, N., & Sullivan, T. (2026). The moderating role of support systems in associations between dating violence and depressive symptoms among Black adolescents. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology.
Smith, R. L., Miola, R. E. Yang, Y. L., Francis, M., & Bannard, T. (2026). Comparing Recovery-Related Outcomes as a Function of Harm Reduction Pathways to Recovery in Collegiate Recovery Participants. Journal of Prevention & Health Promotion.
Baldwin-White, A. Miola, R. E. (2026). “Once Upon a Party”: Preventing Sexual and Dating Violence on College Campuses Through Game-Based Learning. Journal of Technology in Human Services.
Miola, R. E., Morgan, M. R., Green, M. N. & Ross, R. (2025). Posttraumatic stress across color lines: A history of anti-Black exclusion & PTSD. Community Mental Health Journal, 61(6), 1102–1114.
Francis, M. W., Smith, R., Miola, R., Yang, Y. L., Bannard, T., Burns, V., Cleveland, M., Karimova, K., LaBelle, O., Murphy, D., & Piccirillo, M. (2025). Recovery identity as a buffer: Mitigating trauma's impact on recovery capital in collegiate recovery programs. Frontiers in Adolescent Medicine, 3:1602130.
Miola, R. E. & Benjamin, N. Making Sexual Violence Policy More Trauma-Informed: A Case Study using Article 7 of Virginia Code. Social Work. Under Review.
Miola, R. E., McGinnis, H. A., Baldwin-White, A. Broda, M. D. & Luce, C. Family Matters: Exploring the role of social support on trauma symptoms among university students. College Student Affairs Journal. Under Review.
Miola, R. E., Russo, J., Baldwin-White, A., & Siebert, L. Cultural perceptions of sexual violence & prevention strategies amongst college students at increased risk for violence. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research. Under Review.
Bagwell-Grey, M. E. & Miola, R. E. Posttraumatic Growth and the Art of (re)Claiming Sexual Health after Intimate Partner Violence. Violence Against Women. Under Review.
Baldwin-White, A., Fedock, G. & Miola, R. E. Using a Structural Violence Framework to Prevent Gender-Based Violence on College Campuses. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Under Review.
Professional highlights
Accomplishments
- Academic-Community Partnership Grant, $10,000, 2026-2027
Funding to support academic-community partnerships that advance research and policy initiatives that address societal challenges and community-identified needs - Hans Falck Scholarship Award, $2,000, 2026-2027
A dissertation funding award for research that advances knowledge about human health - Elaine Z. Rothenberg Memorial Scholarship, 2024-2025
Awarded from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work to a student who exhibits academic excellence, service to the community and profession, and compassion and leadership