David Robertson

Speaker Information

David D. Robertson is a grief-informed social work scholar, clinician, and social work technologist whose work centers on decolonizing mental health through narrative, collective care, and culturally grounded healing practices. He is a PhD student in Social Work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and a CSWE Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) Doctoral Fellow (2025–2026). His research focuses on intergenerational trauma, racialized grief, and the role of storytelling in restoring dignity and agency within marginalized communities.

Robertson brings interdisciplinary experience across clinical practice, community-based research, and global engagement. His work integrates Black social work scholarship, decolonial frameworks, and trauma-informed approaches to challenge Western-dominant mental health paradigms that individualize and pathologize collective loss. He is the founder of Hope Is Foundation, a nonprofit advancing technology-enabled, grief-informed mental health tools and community storytelling initiatives, and the creator of the In That Order app, a culturally responsive wellness and advocacy platform.

His global work includes collaborations in the United States, Norway, and Japan, as well as community-based initiatives addressing grief, chronic illness, and social inequity. Through research, teaching, and practice, Robertson is committed to advancing equitable mental health systems that honor lived experience, cultural knowledge, and collective pathways to healing.