Sean Joe Elected President of SSWR

​The theme for the annual program meeting of the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR), now in its 25th year, is ‘Social Work Science for Social Change.’ The virtual event takes place January 19-24, 2021.

Sean Joe, Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development, has been elected as the new president of SSWR.  His role will be formally announced during the membership business meeting on January 22, 2:30 p.m EST.

In addition, Brown School faculty, students, staff and alumni have a robust presence at this year's event with 40 presentations and over 75 posters. Review the program, presenters, and register at sswr.org. 

New Leadership Role in SSWR

Joe is a nationally recognized scholar on suicidal behavior among Black Americans, and is expanding the evidence base for effective practice with Black boys and young men. His research focuses on Black adolescents' mental health service use patterns, the role of religion in Black suicidal behavior, salivary biomarkers for suicidal behavior, and the development of father-focused, family-based interventions to prevent urban African American adolescent males from engaging in multiple forms of self-destructive behaviors.

Working within the Center for Social Development, Joe launched the Race and Opportunity Lab, which examines race, opportunity, and social mobility in the St. Louis region, working to reduce inequality in adolescents' transition into adulthood. The lab's leading community science project is HomeGrown STL, which hopes to improve the social mobility of the region’s 60,000 black boys and young men, ages 12-29, in one generation—by the year 2039. Social mobility is defined as the ability of black boys and men to move upward and attain a better life than their parents. 

HomeGrown STL has been awarded $2.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to examine serious disruptive behavioral difficulties, which disproportionately burden Black youth in high-poverty areas, and eliminate racial disparities in child mental health care. The organization has also been named a “Community to Watch” by the Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (MBK). This summer, Joe co-authored “Accountable Policing: Policies to Advance the Personal Safety of Black Boys and Young Men,” which proposed changes to federal and regional policy to build an equitable, transparent and accountable public safety approach.

Joe’s epistemological work focuses on the concept of race in medical and social sciences. He has been quoted extensively in media outlets locally and across the nation, including the Miami Times, the Atlantic Black Star, and NBC.

He serves on the Steering Committee of the national Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) and the National Advisory Council of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Forward Promise initiative. In recognition of the impact of his work, Joe was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, the Society for Social Work and Research, and the New York Academy of Medicine. 

Brown School Presentations

Below is a partial list of presentations by members of the Brown School community. For poster presentations and a complete program, please visit sswr.org.

Tuesday, January 19

Wednesday, January 20

Thursday, January 21

Friday, January 22