Dr. Julie Tippens is an associate professor in the Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies and the Immigrant & Refugee Research Leader for the Minority Health Disparities Initiative at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As a global health researcher trained across the health and social sciences, her central research interests include resilience and protective processes among older refugees; mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) research, programming, and policies in urban humanitarian settings; and using participatory, visual, and arts-based approaches to foster cross-cultural health research.

Tippens has worked as a global public health practitioner and (later) researcher for two decades. Her geographic foci include Kenya, Tanzania, and the United States. She is currently a Principal Investigator – alongside Dr. Lucy Njiru of Amref International University-Kenya/Amref Health Africa – of the HESHIMA Initiative (Respect Initiative), a participatory project to address the social and structural determinants of health among older refugees and refugees living with disabilities in Nairobi, Kenya. This research is funded by the Elrha Humanitarian Innovation Fund.

As a community-engaged researcher, Tippens enjoys working in collaboration with multiple stakeholders to promote health equity. She also works with student researchers through the Health Equity amidst Relocation & Displacement (HEARD) Lab. Her research can be found in global health, public health, social science, and refugee/migration studies journals such as Qualitative Health Research, the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, and the Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies.

In her spare time, she loves drinking coffee, snapping photographs, watching Swahili soap operas, and spending time with her spouse, Mohamed, and their pets, Bernie and Nyundo.

Selected Representative Publications (s = graduate student; u = undergraduate student; c = community partner)

Tippens, J. A., ^SErwin, S., E., ^SDutra Gross, R. M., ^SEller, K. E., ^SBearss, B., Kemp, B., Mollard, E., Njiru, L., Okwarah, P., Palmer-Wackerly, A. L., & Lakati, A. (2023). Multisystemic resilience and psychosocial wellbeing among older refugees: A systematic review with implications for mental health and psychosocial support. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-023-01516-y

Tippens, J. A., Hatton-Bowers, H., Honomichl, R., Wheeler, L., Miamidian, H. M., ^SBash, K., Howell-Smith, M., Nyaoro, D., ^SByrd, J. J., Packard, S., & Teufel-Shone, N. (2021). Psychological distress prevalence and associated stressors and supports among urban-displaced Congolese adults in Kenya. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 91(5), 626-634. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000564

Tippens, J. A., ^SRoselius, K., ^SPadasas, I., ^CKhalif, G., ^SKohel, K., Mollard, E., & ^C/USheikh, I. V. (2021). Cultural bereavement and resilience in refugee resettlement: A photovoice study with Yazidi women in the Midwest U.S. Qualitative Health Research, 31(8), 1486-1503. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323211003059

Tippens, J. A. (2020). Congolese refugees’ generational perceptions of social support in urban Tanzania. Global Social Welfare, 7(1), 69–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40609-019-00155-2

Tippens, J. A. (2020). Urban Congolese refugees’ social capital and community resilience during a period of political violence in Kenya: A qualitative study. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 18(1), 42-59. https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2019.1569744

Tippens, J. A. (2017). Urban Congolese refugees in Kenya: The contingencies of coping and resilience in a context marked by structural vulnerability. Qualitative Health Research, 27(7), 1090–1103. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732316665348