Project Core
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Emilie Smith (Director) Dr. Emilie Smith conducts community-engaged research that seeks to promote positive development of youth and families, particularly among minoritized groups. She uses rigorous scientific methods to test approaches that support empowering parenting and caregiving approaches that reduce disparities and foster equity. She is a Fellow of APA Division 27 (Community) and recipient of the SPR Award for Advancing Culture in Prevention Science. |
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Linda Halgunseth Dr. Linda Halgunseth’s research focuses on parenting and children’s health and well-being in African, European, and Latin American families. Dr. Halgunseth is Past Chair of the Latinx Caucus of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). She received the Early Career Award in Teaching Excellence from AAUP and the Early Career Award in Research from the SRCD Latinx Caucus. |
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Julie Krupa Dr. Julie Krupa’s primary research interests focus on the intersection between public health and juvenile justice, violence reduction, juvenile delinquency, and program evaluation. Dr. Krupa and colleagues are working with criminal justice officials and community partners in the Detroit and Flint areas on several violence reduction initiatives including Ceasefire and Project Safe Neighborhoods. |
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Kune Park Dr. Keunhye Park’s research interests include child welfare services and policy, juvenile justice services and policy, educational experiences of marginalized youth, and the transition to adulthood among foster youth. Park’s current work includes studies of justice system involvement among youth in foster care, and strategies for keeping those young people out of the justice system. |
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Lekie Dwanyen Dr. Lekie Dwanyen research agenda involves studying traumatic stress and its relational effects in families and communities exposed to civil war and organized violence. Her research has engaged communities resettled to the U.S. (Liberian caregivers, youth, and local leaders; Karen caregivers, youth, and translators) and those in post-conflict settings (northern Ugandan counselors, service users, mobilizers, and translators). |
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Melissa Yzaguirre, PhD LMFT (Pronouns: she/ella) Melissa Yzaguirre’s research interests center on advancing culturally relevant practices among family therapists working with Latino families through an inclusive systemic application. Specifically, she seeks to understand the translation of ethnic-racial socialization practices into the therapeutic context for therapists to support Latino families navigating their unique experiences with ethnic-racial discrimination |
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Chris Melde Dr. Chris Melde is Director and Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Broadly, his research interests include the study of violence and its prevention, with special emphasis on the study of gangs and gang membership in the life course, school violence, and public perceptions of crime and victimization risk. |
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Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy |
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Desiree Qin |
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Caitlin Cavanagh Dr. Cavanagh is a developmental psychologist who studies how the juvenile justice system interfaces with children and families. Specifically, she researches the dynamic, reciprocal relation between adolescent development and contact with the juvenile justice system, and ways that law and policy can better support marginalized families whose children come into contact with the justice system. She is the recipient of the SRCD 2021 Early Career Research Contribution Award from the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). |
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Sacha Klein Dr. Sacha Klein is a social worker who studies the impact of public policies on parenting and child maltreatment. Specifically, she researches the ways in which child welfare and early childhood policies and programs affect vulnerable children and marginalized families, including those living in under-resourced neighborhoods, racial/ethnic minorities, and immigrants. |
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Yijie Wang Dr. Yijie Wang’s research interests center on the development of adolescents, particularly those from racial and ethnic minority families. Her work investigates how socio-cultural processes (e.g., ethnic/racial socialization, discrimination) in multiple developmental settings (e.g., family, peer, school) influence youth’s psychosocial and psychobiological adjustment.
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Cheryl Williams-Hecksel Cheryl Williams-Hecksel is co-lead of the University Partnerships team of the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute I support the development of partnerships between public and tribal child welfare programs and Schools of Social Work as they commit to workforce excellence with a special focus on advancing racial equity, inclusion and tribal sovereignty. |
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Advisory Faculty
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Gary Anderson Dr. Gary Anderson is a professor in the School of Social Work. His research interest is in child welfare and organizational leadership to support children and families.
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Deborah Johnson Dr. Deborah Johnson's research over the past 30 years explores racially and culturally related development, parental racial socialization and coping, cultural adjustment from early childhood through emerging adulthood, in both domestic and international children and youth. |
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Edmund McGarrell Dr. Ed McGarrell's primary research interest is in communities and crime and the development of evidence-based strategies for violence reduction.
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Francisco Villarruel Dr. Francisco Villarruel’s research explores Racial and ethnic disparities for Latino youth involved in juvenile justice systems programs. |
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Core Department Heads and Deans
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Mary Finn, College of Social Science Dean |
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Anna Maria Santiago, Associate Dean for Research |
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Andrea Wittenborn, Chair |
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Claire Vallotton, Director of Graduate Studies https://hdfs.msu.edu/index.php/people/faculty/vallotton-claire-d-phd |
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Chris Melde, Professor and Director |
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Christina DeJong, Director of Graduate Studies School of Crimnal Justice |
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Anne Hughes (Director) |
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Joanne Riebschleger (Director of Doctoral Program) https://socialwork.msu.edu/directory/riebschleger-joanne.html |
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