Team

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 and intentionally seeks and responds to new opportunities that will empower families and communities to thrive.

Since 2018, she has overseen the School’s strategic goal of community engagement and leads the evolving ENGAGE team that promotes, coordinates and facilitates greater impact in community and social justice. Shanks also serves as faculty advisor to the New Leaders in African-Centered Social Work Program. She has also been a research investigator for the Saving for Education, Entrepreneurship, and Downpayment (SEED) demonstration program and consults with several other child savings account initiatives, including one started in Lansing Public Schools.

As a faculty affiliated with the Technical Assistance Center funded by the Skillman Foundation, over a ten-year period Trina Shanks was actively engaged in six Detroit communities as part of the Good Neighborhoods program. She also has conducted multiple evaluations of Detroit’s Summer Youth Employment Program—Grow Detroit’s Young Talent.

From 2010 to 2012 Shanks was appointed by Michigan Governor Granholm to serve two years on the State Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity. She is currently one of the national network co-leads for the Social Work Grand Challenge: Reversing Extreme Economic Inequality and a non-resident fellow at the Urban Institute.

Shanks earned a PhD in Social Work from Washington University and an M.S. in Comparative Social Research from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

Fatima Salman, LLMSW, is a macro social worker and community organizer. As part of the School’s ENGAGE team, she works with communities and organizations in Wayne and Washtenaw counties to increase their capacity and resources in order to meet their goals. Through the work of ENGAGE, she runs the Employment Equity Action and Learning Collaborative, a collaborative of 65+ stakeholders that works together to leverage resources and foster just and equitable economic development solutions for individuals in the city of Detroit.

Throughout her high school and undergraduate years, Salman held leadership roles in national youth organizations that were centered around youth development and empowerment. Salman completed her undergraduate degree from U-M in 2000 and taught language and linguistics at a private school. During a three-year period in which she lived in Madison, Wisconsin, she was the principal of a local elementary school. She returned to Michigan and completed her MSW at U-M. She was the executive director of the Muslim Students Association (MSA National) during the organization’s time of transition and merged her expertise of youth development with her macro management skills. She was the host of the local radio show “Between the Lines” in 2017. She finished her three-year tenure as the president of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) — Michigan chapter, and also concurrently held the position as the chairperson for the NASW National Council of Chapter Presidents. She now serves as the vice president of NASW.

Salman is a lecturer for the U-M School of Social Work, serves on the board of the Guidance Center in Detroit and is a Racial Equity Fellow with Detroit Equity Action Lab. She also sits on the Community Advisory Panel for Detroit Public Television and was appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to be on the Growing Michigan Together Council higher education workgroup