Rafael Angulo joined USC in 2001 after 11 years of investigative work and clinical practice with Child Protective Services. Specifically, he spent four years in emergency response/investigation, three years in street outreach services with runaway youth in Hollywood and surrounding areas, and four years providing transitional housing services in East Los Angeles to emancipated foster youth. His areas of micro practice also include medical social work and clinical work with predominantly Spanish-speaking clients.

Fascinated by the beauty and grandeur of cultures, Angulo went to Bali, Indonesia for the first time in 1991, eventually finishing his graduate thesis there. He studied the parental methods of discipline and perceptions of child abuse, finding that community rituals and traditions are protective buffers in providing social support and helping to recognize the dignity of children. His areas of both clinical and policy interests include fatherhood's impact on child development, clinical practice with Latino clients, media literacy for social workers, spiritual dimensions of clinical practice, transforming the power of art in undervalued communities, and relational parenting with adolescents.

Trained as a filmmaker, Angulo has produced and directed documentaries, public service announcements and videos for nonprofit agencies. He also has utilized video technology to conduct oral histories, digital storytelling and ethnographic recordings. He teaches Media in Social Work: Documentary Filmmaking as a Praxis for Social Justice; Diversity in Social Work; Professional Self-Care; and integrative seminars. Outside the university, Professor Angulo facilitates group therapy for Spanish-speaking fathers, teaches documentary filmmaking to social work students in China, provides individual counseling to immigrants and men, and is working on numerous documentary projects for national distribution.