Research Office News

Professor William Elliott III and MSW student Sophia Nielsen write about reducing poverty and promoting economic mobility through Child Savings Accounts and other short-term and long-term education investments in College Promise’s latest newsletter.

Professor Trina Shanks and Patrick Meehan, Program Manager of the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being, wrote an op-ed for the Michigan Journal of Public Affairs. They write: “As the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines begins, the medical establishment faces a critical challenge: earning Black Americans' trust.”

Professor Daphne Watkins is a co-chair of a new task force, Advancing Public Safety at the University of Michigan. President Mark Schlissel and Provost Susan Collins appointed a 20-member task force that will examine what’s working and what needs to be improved with the university’s Division of Public Safety and Security. The task force is among several anti-racism initiatives that U-M officials announced last fall after the deaths of George Floyd and other Black people at the hands of police sparked national conversations around structural racism and policing. 

Assistant Professor Jamie Mitchell has been named assistant director of clinical research participation of the Community Outreach and Engagement program at Michigan Medicine’s Rogel Cancer Center. In this role, Mitchell will look to curate best practices for minority enrollment, providing a toolbox to help investigators consider diversity and inclusivity as they develop their trials. The role leverages work Mitchell is already doing to increase minority recruitment for aging-related studies.

“We as a cancer center community value research that represents more than just the majority population. We want to know our insights and discoveries apply to diverse populations. If we are having trouble recruiting diverse patients to our trials, having someone to think through issues strategically will help make it easier on researchers,” says Mitchell.

Assistant Professor Lindsay Bornheimer is presenting a "lightning talk" at the Department of Psychiatry's 31st Annual Albert J. Silverman Virtual Research Conference. She will be presenting her research on the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of a cognitive behavioral suicide prevention-focused intervention tailored to adults diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

“Suicide death estimates are eight times greater for individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders as compared to the general population and there is a paucity of evidence-based suicide-prevention approaches tailored for individuals with psychosis. This NIMH R34 study is gaining input from community stakeholders and experts in the field to modify a cognitive-behavioral suicide prevention treatment for individuals with psychosis. We will then test the preliminary effectiveness and implementation of this modified treatment in a randomized controlled trial with providers delivering mental health services and adult clients receiving care at Washtenaw County Community Mental Health,” said Bornheimer.

Danae Ross, Joint PhD student in Social Work and Sociology, Selected for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Policy Research Scholars Program. The Health Policy Research Scholars is a leadership opportunity for second-year full-time doctoral students from populations underrepresented in specific doctoral disciplines and/or marginalized backgrounds. The program supports and connects emerging scholars who are committed to bringing about meaningful change and building a national culture of health, which enables everyone in America to live longer healthier lives.

Ross’s research brings an interdisciplinary lens to the study of Black maternal/parental health. Her work centers on the physical and mental health of Black mothers and their infants in sexual and reproductive justice discourses. She investigates how anti-Black culture–particularly related to Black sexuality and parenthood–influences Black maternal/parental-infant lived experiences as well as health outcomes, standard medical recommendations, and health care policy relative to birth and breast/body feeding.

Clinical Assistant Professor Daicia Price shared her personal and professional experiences with law enforcement agencies in the University Record. Price is currently partnering with Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network to provide weeklong crisis intervention training for law enforcement agencies.

“Five times, myself and my family have been incarcerated for reasons we should not have been, but I still don’t place that on an individual officer. I think about where the gaps were in those different pieces, and helping them understand ways they can do policing in a trauma-informed way,” said Price.

Finn Bell, Joint PhD student in Social Work and Sociology, has been named a Social Work Health Futures Lab Fellow. He joins a national cohort of 26 social work experts from around the U.S. and Canada, who will work together on topics ranging from social media to climate justice. Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), this initiative aspires to help prepare a new generation of the profession.

"For the past seven years, my community-engaged research has been motivated by trying to understand how communities can build the emotional, spiritual, and cultural sustenance necessary to effectively confront the climate crisis,” said Bell. “I am honored to have been selected as a RWJF Social Work Health Futures Lab Fellow, as it will give me the opportunity to receive specialized training in futures thinking and connect me with a cohort of social work leaders similarly committed to addressing the ‘wicked problems’ of the 21st century from an intersectional anti-racist lens."