Tenure-Track Faculty

Lindsay Bornheimer's research program focuses on understanding and preventing suicidal death among adults experiencing serious mental illness, with a particular focus on psychosis and schizophrenia. Her work aims to examine suicide risk and protective factors, advance theories of suicide and ...

Professor Carter studies associations between pubertal development and patterns of adjustment (psychological, behavioral, and health), with particular attention to how pubertal processes, social-cultural contextual factors (family, peers, teachers, romantic partners), and wider social systems ...

My current research interests involve the study of several different predictors of psychological and physical adjustment, including optimism and pessimism, perfectionism, and social problem solving. I am also interested in understanding how cultural and racial factors influence the function of ...

Linda M. Chatters is a professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health and professor in the School of Social Work. She is a faculty associate with the Program for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social Research and the Center for ...

Professor Barry Checkoway is an internationally-recognized scholar and practitioner on youth empowerment, neighborhood development, and community change. His projects and publications draw on work with grassroots groups, community agencies, and government programs in the South Bronx, Detroit, ...

Professor Córdova received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University and graduated a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Minority Fellow. After completing his National Institutes of Health-funded postdoctoral training at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, ...

Professor Ruth Dunkle's research, teaching, and clinical practice focus on gerontology. Recent research projects include "Mothers of Adult Daughters with a Serious Mental Illness: The Experience of African Americans and Whites" and "An Historical Perspective of Social Service Delivery in Detroit ...

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 is challenging individual beliefs and cultural values ...

Katrina R. Ellis is an assistant 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 ...

Today's lower-income households are navigating an increasingly complex and ever-evolving economic world that questions equal access to higher education and the value of a college degree, overemphasizes the roles of credit and debt for achieving economic goals, reveals employment landscapes with ...

Larry M. Gant’s current work focuses on neighborhood-level change efforts in the Detroit and surrounding metropolitan areas. The co-operative work incorporates strategies and tactics inspired by collaborations with research colleagues sharing historical, social and political lessons learned from ...

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 ...

Giovanna (Odessa) Gonzalez Benson's research focuses on refugee resettlement. Her research expands current knowledge about policy and practice with refugees with an emphasis on labor equity, socioeconomic adjustment and organizations' participation as dimensions that prioritize refugee ...

Andrew Grogan-Kaylor's research focuses on scientific knowledge development and intervention research on children and families. Grogan-Kaylor's current research projects examine parenting behaviors such as physical punishment and parental expressions of emotional warmth and support, and their ...

Professor Lorraine Gutiérrez has a joint appointment with the School of Social Work (SSW) and Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan and is a faculty associate in American Culture. She also is a member of the SSW Community Organization Learning Community. Her teaching and ...

Dr. Jaclynn Hawkins is an Associate Director of the Gender and Health Research Lab. She received her masters and BA in social welfare from the University of California, Berkeley and her PhD from the University of Michigan in the Joint Program of Social Work and Sociology. Jaclynn’s recent ...

Dr. Herrenkohl’s primary research interests focus on the areas of child and family well-being, child maltreatment and the psychosocial and developmental underpinnings of health-risk behaviors in youth and adults; substance use, mental and physical health outcomes of adversity; and resilience.  ...

Professor Joseph Himle's research interests focus on mental health intervention research with adults and youth. Himle's current intervention projects include treatment development projects focused on bringing cognitive behavioral therapy to underserved populations. He is also involved in ...

Shanna K. Kattari, PhD, MEd, ACS is faculty at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Her background is as a board certified sexologist, experienced sexuality educator, and social justice advocate. Her extant research focuses on understanding how power, privilege and oppression ...

Professor Edith C. Kieffer, MPH, Ph.D., University of Michigan School of Social Work, conducts research addressing health and health care disparities. She has extensive experience planning, conducting and analyzing data from qualitative formative research and intervention research studies in ...

Sherrie A. Kossoudji is presently an associate professor in the School of Social Work and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Economics. Her principal research area is immigration. She has written numerous articles on the legal status of immigrant workers in the United States and ...

Shawna J. Lee, PhD '05, is associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, where she is director of the Parenting in Context Research Lab. She is a faculty affiliate at the Center for Human Growth and Development (CHGD) and at the Institute for Social Research, Research ...

Laura Lein is the former dean of the University of Michigan School of Social Work (2009-2016). Formerly professor of social work and anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), she was a respected researcher and teacher from 1985 to 2008. She has served as principal investigator on ...