Dr. Christine Holmes is an adjunct lecturer and has enjoyed working with the Columbia School of Social Work since 2018. Her areas of interest bridge aging and international social work. Christine is the founder and counselor of Hand in Hand Caregiver Counseling, supporting long-distance caregivers through elder care and bereavement. She is also an ASA RISE alum of the American Society on Aging fellowship for BIPOC leaders in aging.

Christine has served internationally in various capacities, including her role as a course facilitator for the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative in Jakarta, Indonesia. Previously, she was Visiting Faculty for The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health, an academic institution of The Banyan, a mental health and homelessness NGO in Chennai, India. She developed an operations manual and a diploma course for homeless shelter coordinators and led research on the history of colonial psychiatry in Kerala, India. Christine also worked in Cambodia as a Regional Teacher Trainer for the Peace Corps and an advisor to local NGOs and academic programs.

Christine’s clinical practice began at a diversion program of The New York Foundling where she delivered Functional Family Therapy in the South Bronx. Christine went on to support families as a case manager in D.C.’s juvenile justice system, the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Christine discovered her passion for family caregiving while managing adult guardianship cases at the D.C. Superior Court’s Guardianship Assistance Program. Afterward, she provided distance-counseling to adult child and spousal caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias for the NYU Caregiver Intervention study.

Christine earned her Doctor of Clinical Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania where she was honored with the Dr. Ram Cnaan Award for merit. Christine holds a Masters in Social Work from the Columbia School of Social Work, a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Arizona State University and an Associate of Arts degree in General Studies from Glendale Community College.