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PhD Students

PhD Candidates

PhD Students

Recent PhD Graduates

• Takashi Amano

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• Gerontology; older adult well-being; Engagement in meaningful activities and its effects on older adult well-being, especially those with dementia

• Haley Becker

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• Prevention of chronic illness, obesity, and health disparities

• Ivy Blackmore

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• Program evaluation and formative research focused on food production systems in rural Latin America

• Yu-Chih Chen

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• Economic security in later life; Productive and activity engagement; Cross-national research

• Chien-Jen Chiang

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• Child welfare and child maltreatment. Child protective services; evidenced-based implementation processes

• Christina Drymon

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• Substance Use Disorders; Natural Recovery (without treatment, formal or informal); Opioid Use Disorders (prescription pain-killers); Qualitative Research

• Katherine Marcal

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• Homelessness, housing policy, and poverty among children and families in at-risk communities

• Michael McLaughlin

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• Economics of child maltreatment and poverty; tax policy and social outcomes

• Robert Motley

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• Community Violence, Trauma, and Policing among Black emerging adults ages 18-29 residing in under-resourced communities

• Whitney Sewell

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• Social networks and the implementation of biomedical HIV Prevention strategies for Black Women; Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis uptake and adherence for high-risk women

• Mary Jo Stahlschmidt

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• Child maltreatment

• Harry Taylor

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• Social isolation and loneliness among older adults, minority aging, aging and health

• Yi Wang

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• Productive engagement in later life; Aging-friendly community; Community services to older adults; Health and mental health among older adults

• Roger Wong

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• Aging epidemiology; Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias; Racial health disparities

• Phylicia Allen

• PhD in Social Work
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• African American adolescents; internal, external- and neighborhood assets; educational trajectory; K-12 education structure

• Autumn Asher BlackDeer

• PhD in Social Work
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• Relationship and sexual violence; mental health services; American Indian and Indigenous populations.

• Andrae Banks

• PhD in Social Work
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• Social and emotional health and well-being; adolescent development; mental health services; social mobility

• Sara Beeler-Stinn

• PhD in Social Work
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• Women with incarceration, trauma, substance abuse

• William Byansi

• PhD in Social Work
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• Child and Adolescent mental health services, Community-based economic development & social policy in Uganda

• Shih-Ying Cheng

• PhD in Social Work
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• Gender oppression; marriage immigrant; intimate partner violence.

• Flora Cohen

• PhD in Social Work
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• Global mental health, mental health literacy, and community-based interventions

• Merriah Croston

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Health behavior change interventions; Applied health communications and social marketing research

• Darejan Dvalishvili

• PhD in Social Work
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• Child welfare; Child maltreatment; Poverty eradication; Social protection

• Jacob Eaton

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Food systems; global nutrition; complementary feeding; microbiome; social nutrition

• Emily Evers

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Maternal and child health; health behavior change; health education; peer support; international development

• LaShawnda Fields

• PhD in Social Work
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• Urban families; Child welfare; social justice and equality, education and poverty eradication

• Andrew Foell

• PhD in Social Work
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• Neighborhood Effects; Community Building, Development and Organizing; Community Engaged Research Methods

• Karishma Furtado

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Social determinants of health, the health impacts of racial inequity in schools, and data communication

• Carlos Andres Gallegos

• PhD in Social Work
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• Nexus between agri-food systems, health, wellbeing, cosmovision, institutions and social action among Indigenous populations in US and Ecuador

• Michael Galvin

• PhD in Social Work
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• Social determinants of health, mental health disparities, global health, and conflict and disaster zones

• Maria Gandarilla Ocampo

• PhD in Social Work
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• Child welfare, mandated reporting of child, elder, and dependent adult maltreatment, diversity and intersectionality, group work, and practice informed research

• Rachel Garg

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Health disparities; health communications; health behavior

• Eleni Gaveras

• PhD in Social Work
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• Serious and Persistent Mental Illness, Social Determinants of Mental Health, Global and Domestic Mental Health Services

• Mark Hawes

• PhD in Social Work
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• Mental and physical health disparities; mental illness trajectories; intersection of SMI, drug addiction, and incarceration; child welfare and adolescent mental health; D & I Science

• Cole Hooley

• PhD in Social Work
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• Dissemination and implementation science; mental health services, scale-up; organizational operations and behavior

• Aytakin Huseynli

• PhD in Social Work
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• Social welfare in resource-rich countries; child welfare; global social work and social work education

• Ashley Jackson

• PhD in Social Work
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• Community-police relations, reentry, adult/juvenile justice, participatory research

• Richa Joshi

• PhD in Social Work
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• Collective action, group processes and communities for social change

• Joonmo Kang

• PhD in Social Work
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• Environmental justice; environmentally sustainable welfare institutions; urban sustainability; urban community organizing; political ecology; qualitative methods; community based participatory research

• Kakada Kuy

• PhD in Social Work
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• Social policy on aging, intersections of technology and aging, and impacts of Asian family breakdown, labor immigration and past traumatic experiences on well-beings of older adults

• Yuekang Li

• PhD in Social Work
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• Aging, aging in place, productive aging, social engagement and wellbeing

• Sara Malone

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Dissemination & implementation science; pediatric critical care treatment and outcomes

• Lara Markovitz

• PhD in Social Work
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• Social and family policy; fatherhood initiatives; program evaluation

• Maria Morrison

• PhD in Social Work
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• Needs of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people; trauma-informed interventions; mass incarceration

• Alexandra Morshed

• PhD in Social Work
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• Prevention of chronic disease; public health nutrition; dissemination and implementation

• Thabani Nyoni

• PhD in Social Work
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• Interventions for migrant health (Sub-Saharan Africa)

• Meagan Pilar

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Dissemination and implementation research; mental health interventions; racial disparities

• Kyle Pitzer

• PhD in Social Work
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• Urban poverty; neighborhood effects; community development

• Lisa Pollack

• PhD in Social Work
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• Health services and policy; women’s health; and racial and ethnic disparities in health

• Helen Robinson

• PhD in Social Work
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• Multi-systemic impacts of community-based intervention research, collective efficacy in communities of color, youth development in urban settings

• Natalicio Serrano

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• The built and social environment, and its relationship with physical activity, nutrition, and chronic disease

• Stephanie Skees

• PhD in Social Work
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• Financial capability, financial literacy and financial exploitation among older adults

• Erin Stringfellow

• PhD in Social Work
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• Addictions, mental illness, poverty and chronic disease

• Sicong Sun

• PhD in Social Work
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• Asset building and financial capability, health disparities, poverty

• Mia Vogel

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Dissemination, implementation, and sustainment of evidence-based programs and policies to improve population health and public health system performance

• Xiaoyan Wang

• PhD in Public Health Sciences
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• Cancer Epidemiology; Cancer Genomics

• Christopher Weatherly

• PhD in Social Work
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• Dissemination and implementation of evidenced-based mental health treatments into practice; policy and health care procedures to improve outcomes and quality of life for populations with severe and persistent mental illness

• Ellie Wideman

• PhD in Social Work
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• Early Childhood Trauma and Trauma-Informed care and intervention development and evaluation, policy and integrated service delivery for at-risk children & families, especially those that are child welfare involved

• Maya Williams

• PhD in Social Work
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• School-based social work, interventions to the school-to-prison-pipeline, community engagement, and policy reform

• Yuanyuan Yang

• PhD in Social Work
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• Poverty policy; Asset-building; Evidenced-based mental health interventions

• Yingying Zeng

• PhD in Social Work
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• Poverty, asset building policy and community development

• Yiqi Zhu

• PhD in Social Work
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• Institutional poverty; community organizing; participatory methods; Capitalization in collective action

• Sarita Barton

• Planning Analyst, Integrated Planning Division, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Shanondora Billiot

• Assistant Faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Jessica Black

• Assistant Professor, University of Alaska-Fairbanks
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Maxine Davis

• Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Arlington
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2018

• Allison Dunnigan

• Assistant Professor, University of Georgia
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2018

• Lara Gerassi

• Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, affiliate with the Department of Gender and Women's Studies
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Donald Gerke

• Assistant Professor, University of Denver
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2018

• Cal Halvorsen

• Assistant Professor, Boston College
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2018

• Hyunil Kim

• Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2018

• Jill Kuhlberg

• Project Evaluator, Health Matters; Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Praveen Kumar

• Assistant Professor at Boston College
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Ericka Lewis

• Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Hollee McGinnis

• Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Vithya Muruga

• Assistant Professor at Saint Louis University
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Lailea Noel

• Assistant Professor at the Silver School of Social Work at New York University
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Beth Prusaczyk

• Postdoctoral Fellow for the Center for Clinical Quality and Implementation Research at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Divya Ravindranath

• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2018

• Raven Ross

• Health Science Administrator at the Indian Health Service
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Rachel Voth Schrag

• Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

• Brad Tucker

• Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University
• PhD in Social Work
• Graduated 2017

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