Faculty

Professor William Elliott is a leading researcher in the fields of college savings accounts, college debt, and wealth inequality. Shaped by his personal roots in poverty in a small steel mill city in Pennsylvania, Professor Elliott pursues challenging individual beliefs and cultural values that surround funding for college, student debt, inequality, systemic patterns of poverty, and educational justice. Being refined in poverty allows him to approach questions in his research differently.

Dr. James M. Ellis’s research investigates relationships between education pipeline experiences and racial-ethnic and low-income student pathways to college enrollment and degree completion. His’ scholarship examines the nexus between college readiness program participation, developmental approaches to college readiness, social support from peers and adults and racism and discrimination in education settings. Dr. Ellis utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to carry out his research program and has methodological expertise in quantitative and qualitative methods and designs.

Katrina R. Ellis is an associate professor at the School of Social Work. Her research interests include family health interventions, cancer survivorship, racial and ethnic disparities in health, and family management of chronic health conditions. An overarching goal of her research is to support the health of families facing multiple, coexisting illnesses, with a specific focus on African Americans. Dr. Ellis employs a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies in her work with families, clinicians and community groups.

Dr. Lisa Fedina (she/her) is an associate professor at the School of Social Work. Her research investigates the connections between forms of violence across the lifespan (e.g., child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual assault), health and mental health outcomes. Her current studies examine risk and protective factors for campus sexual assault and profiles of victimization and suicide risk among emerging adults.

Dr. Terri Friedline writes, organizes, and teaches about racial capitalism, technology and the financial system. She is a professor of social work at the University of Michigan and is the author of “Banking on a Revolution: Why Financial Technology Won’t Save a Broken System” (Oxford University Press). Friedline’s writing draws on critical theories and is inspired by abolitionist politics. Her recent writings focus on debt as racialized and gendered violence, credit scoring as a carceral practice and financial technology (“fintech”) as invasive infrastructure.

Joseph Gardella, PhD, is a community based participatory action prevention researcher and focuses on preventing violence and promoting wellness, health and positive development across marginalized communities. Gardella’s research is federally (e.g., NIH), state (e.g., department of health), and locally (e.g., school district) funded. He actively works with communities across the United States.

Ayesha Ghazi Edwin, MSW '10, is a political social worker and community organizer with over 15 years of experience in various social justice areas, including labor, healthcare, voting, immigration, housing and disability. Ghazi Edwin serves as an assistant clinical professor, specializing in community-based research, creating community-engaged courses, and fostering learning initiatives that link the university community to social change movements and public policy innovation.

Karla Goldman's research focuses on the history of the American Jewish experience with special attention to the history of American Jewish communities and the evolving roles and contributions of American Jewish women. She directs the University of Michigan Jewish Communal Leadership Program, a collaborative effort between the School of Social Work and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies.

Odessa Gonzalez Benson, PhD, MSW, is an associate professor at the School of Social Work and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and a faculty affiliate with the LSA International Institute Center for Southeast Asian Studies. Her areas of research are refugee resettlement, state-civil society relations (regarding migration), labor migration, critical policy studies and epistemic justice and the production of knowledge in social welfare studies and forced migration studies, with three broad aspects to her research.

Andrew (Andy) Grogan-Kaylor's research focuses on scientific knowledge development and intervention research with children and families, with the aim of reducing violence against children and improving family and child well-being. Grogan-Kaylor's current research projects examine parenting behaviors such as physical punishment and parental expressions of emotional warmth and support, and their effects on children's aggression, antisocial behavior, anxiety and depression.