Faculty

Dr. Kathryn Maguire-Jack's research focuses on child abuse and neglect prevention, with an emphasis on communities and geographic disparities. Her work is funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, the Ohio Department of ...

As a social work and health disparities researcher, Jamie Mitchell has extensive experience conducting research on health behaviors and healthcare communication strategies to optimize well-being and longevity for older African Americans, with an emphasis on older African American men. Her ...

Associate Professor Robert Ortega’s research interests are in the areas of relationship development, group work practice, treatment interventions and service utilization particularly in the areas of mental health and child welfare. Dr. Ortega has presented and written on these topics with a ...

Park is an organizational scholar with an overarching research question, "how can health and social service organizations provide more responsive and effective services?" He is deeply interested in (1) how to ensure user's meaningful representation opportunities in service and policy ...

Brian E. Perron, PhD, is a Professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Perron’s recent work focuses on helping community-based organizations use data to improve service delivery and other business processes. This includes developing user-friendly and sustainable data ...

Born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Rogério M. Pinto uses art-based methods to conduct community-engaged research in the United States and Brazil. Funded by the National Institutes of Health and other sources, Pinto investigates strategies for improving delivery of services (HIV and drug-use ...

Dr. Camille R. Quinn, PhD, AM, LCSW, LISW-S, is a health criminologist scholar whose research focuses on investigating the health and mental health equity of African American adolescents and young adults at the intersections of race, gender, health, crime and system involvement. Specifically, as ...

Katie Richards-Schuster, AM, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. She received her doctorate in Social Work and Sociology from the University of Michigan and her AM from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. Her ...

Joe Ryan's research and teaching build upon his direct practice experiences with child welfare and juvenile justice populations. Dr. Ryan is the Co-Director of the Child and Adolescent Data Lab an applied research center focused on using data to drive policy and practice decisions in the field.  ...

Dr. Katie Schultz focuses her research on health equity among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations. She examines violence and associated health outcomes, including substance misuse, among AI/AN women and girls; community and cultural connectedness as protective factors; and ...

Associate Professor Kristin Seefeldt’s primary research interests lie in exploring how low-income individuals understand their situations, particularly around issues related to work and economic well being. Currently, she is conducting research on families’ financial coping strategies and is a ...

H. Luke Shafer, PhD, is the Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy and Professor of Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. At U-M, he is also the inaugural director of Poverty Solutions, an interdisciplinary, ...

Dr. Shanks’ research interests include the impact of poverty and wealth on child well-being; asset-building policy and practice across the life cycle; and community and economic development. As Director of the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being, she continues ongoing research ...

Matthew J. Smith, PhD, MSW, MPE, LCSW, received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed post-doctoral fellowships in psychiatric epidemiology and biostatistics at Washington University in St. Louis and in translational neuroscience at Northwestern University. Smith also ...

Rebeccah Sokol, PhD, is a behavioral scientist who studies youth trauma exposure. Her overarching research agenda seeks to ease the burden of adversity experienced in childhood and adolescence, with a central focus on reducing youth violence exposure and involvement. Sokol uses a developmental ...

Karen Staller, PhD, JD, received her educational training at Cornell Law School and Columbia University School of Social Work, where her dissertation on runaway and homeless youth was awarded with distinction. Staller practiced public interest law with low-income senior citizens and at-risk ...

Robert Joseph Taylor is the Harold R. Johnson Endowed Professor of Social Work and the Sheila Feld Collegiate Professor of Social Work. He is also the Director of the Program for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social Research. Professor Taylor has published extensively on the ...

Richard M. Tolman, LMSW, PhD, is a professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. He received his doctorate in social welfare from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his MSW from the University of Michigan. Professor Tolman's work focuses on the effectiveness of ...

Daphne C. Watkins is a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor at the University of Michigan who studies: (1) behavioral interventions for historically marginalized groups; (2) mixed methods approaches to research in context; and (3) leadership development and organizational ...

My research aims to increase access to mental health services for underserved, economically disadvantaged individuals and families living in rural communities. As an intervention and services researcher, I seek to develop and test innovative approaches for adapting, translating, and ...

Lisa Wexler is a professor of social work and a research professor in the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan. She received her doctoral education from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and did her critical ethnographic ...

Dr. Xiang’s overall research aims to enhance the health of older adults — a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. To achieve this goal, she conducts research in two interconnected areas. The first area is fundamental social science research, where she investigates the ...

Professor Yoshihama's research interests are violence against women, immigrants, mental health, and community organizing. Combining research and social action at local, state, national, and international levels over the last 25 years, Dr. Yoshihama focuses on the prevention of gender-based ...