Faculty

Shanna K. Kattari, PhD, MEd, CSE (they/them/theirs) is an associate professor at the School of Social Work, in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department (by courtesy), and is the director of the [Sexuality|Relationships|Gender] Research Collective. A white, Jewish, nonbinary, disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent (AuDHD), polyamorous, queer fat Femme, their practice and community background is as a board-certified sexologist, certified sexuality educator and social justice activist.

Dr. Ashley Lacombe-Duncan received her MSW (2010) and PhD (2018) from the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on healthcare access and health equity, with a particular focus on healthcare access for people who experience multiple forms of intersecting oppressions.

Dr. Shawna J. Lee is professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, where she also directs the Parenting in Context Research Lab and the Program Evaluation Group (PEG). Her research focuses on child maltreatment prevention, father involvement, parenting stress and family well-being.

Professor Lydia Li is a gerontologist. Her research aims to understand and advance healthy aging among older adults in disadvantaged socio-economic positions. Her current research focuses on social isolation, depression and ageism. She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and a Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar. She served as the co-chair of the 2016 GSA program committee. She is associate editor of the International Journal of Social Welfare. She also serves on the editorial board of Research on Aging and Journal of Gerontological Social Work.

Kathryn (Katie) Maguire-Jack, MSW, MPA, PhD, is a professor of social work. She studies child maltreatment prevention, with a focus on understanding macro-level factors affecting parenting, including public policies and neighborhood structures and processes. She teaches courses in child welfare, public policy, program evaluation and research methods. Her work is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S.

Tara Maudrie, PhD, MSPH, is an enrolled citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians (Snapping Turtle Clan) and a health researcher specializing in Indigenous food systems, nutrition and health. She has worked with urban and tribal communities across the U.S., collaborating on culturally grounded approaches to nourishment, well-being and food sovereignty. Maudrie is currently engaged in research, program development and policy efforts supporting Indigenous health and food systems.

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 peer-reviewed research articles specifically center on older African American men’s preventive health behaviors, cancer and chronic disease communication, co-morbid mental and physical health, and psychosocial and physical well-being.

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. Ortega has published on these topics with a special focus on child maltreatment prevention and intervention, child welfare assessment and treatment, diversity and social justice in research and group work practice.

Ethan 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 decision-making processes, and (2) how intra/inter-organizational collaborations and macro-level measures influence organizational behaviors and shape the experience of vulnerable service users.

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 management systems; creating interactive data visualizations to facilitate interpretation of data, especially for non-technical users; and building organizational capacity to promote data-driven decision making.