Ashley E. Cureton

Dr. Ashley Cureton or "Dr. C" is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work and Marsal Family School of Education at U-M. She is also a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. Prior to her current role, she was a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow and lecturer in the School of Education and the Department of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. Cureton identifies as a forced migration and international social work scholar who seeks to identify culturally specific interventions, programs, and policies to improve the educational, socio-emotional, and environmental outcomes of refugee and migrant children, youth, and their families in the U.S and abroad. By engaging in community-based participatory research, she is further interested in the role of institutions, such as resettlement agencies, refugee-led organizations, and schools, in supporting the distinct needs of these vulnerable yet resilient groups. She has over a decade of research and practice experience collaborating with refugee and migrant populations in global contexts like Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Ghana, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, Ecuador, Peru, India, the Bahamas and the United States.

Prior to attending graduate school, Cureton worked as a research associate at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research. She also served as a research fellow for the U.S. Department of State in Turkey, working with Syrian refugee youth in school and community settings. Cureton received a PhD and master’s degree from the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago. She also received graduate certificates in forced migration and refugee mental health from Harvard University, the University of Oxford,and Northwestern University.

Cureton has published over a dozen articles in top peer-reviewed academic journals such as Academic Pediatrics, Children & Schools, International Social Work, Journal of Adolescent Research, Journal of Career Assessment, The Lancet, Refugee Survey Quarterly, Urban Education, and Youth & Society, to name a few. She has received funding support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), National Endowment of the Arts, Michigan Humanities Council, Fahs Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation, and the National Center for Institutional Diversity. Cureton has received numerous prestigious awards, such as being recognized by Diverse Issues of Higher Education as a 2025 Emerging Scholar due to her exceptional research, teaching, and service in the fields of social work and education as well as the Elizabeth Butler (Alumni) Award from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, which celebrates a recent graduate who has shown remarkable potential and extraordinary career success in the field of social work. Cureton has also been recognized as an exceptional educator, educational outreach ambassador and social work leader/advocate, receiving the 2022 Teacher of the Year Award (U-M School of Social Work), 2024 Lester Monts Award (U-M Center for Educational Outreach), and the 2025 Faculty IMPACT Award (U-M School of Social Work) for her efforts.