Isabella C. Restrepo (she/they) is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research analyzes the experiences of youth of color within the U.S. foster care system. A UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Ethnic Studies department at UC San Diego, Restrepo’s research offers a critical lens that excavates the criminalization and pathologization that is inherent in the foster care system and centers the experiences of racialized Latina foster girls with carceral tools like behavioral diagnosis and mandated services. In addition to her academic work, Restrepo leverages their research through workshops for mental health workers to help them understand their roles in expanding the reach of the carceral state for the criminalized youth they work with. The ethos of this work centers around the question: how can clinicians and mental health workers minimize the harm caused by an inherently harmful system?
