Lucy Rabbaa, MSW, MSc

Lucy Rabbaa has been serving as the Director of Social Services at HIAS Pennsylvania since November 2020. She has worked with refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants since 2007 taking on a variety of roles such as a Caseworker & Interpreter at the Resettlement Support Center (RSC) in Bangkok, Thailand; Health Access Coordinator with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Oakland, CA; Preferred Communities Program Officer with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) in Arlington, VA; and Program Director at Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE) in Baltimore, MD. In addition, during the Mediterranean migration crisis in 2016, she volunteered with two nonprofit organizations in Malta – Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) and Foundation for Shelter and Support to Migrants (FSM), supporting their search & rescue efforts and community integration programs for migrants and asylum seekers.

Lucy’s other field of specialization is elder care with a focus on a comprehensive, community-based model of care called the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). In this capacity, she participated in the outcome measurement and evaluation project by assessing the level of satisfaction among program participants and their caregivers at various senior care facilities nationwide, using an instrument called the Integrated Satisfaction Measurement (I-SAT).

Lucy received her Master’s in Social Work (MSW) from Temple University and a Master of Science (MSc) in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from the University of Oxford. In her second year of the MSW program, HIAS Pennsylvania was her field placement where she engaged in both macro and micro social work by splitting her time between the two departments – Refugee Resettlement and Development.