Helen Bader School of Social Welfare faculty and staff have always immersed themselves in the prevailing issues of the time and of the community.

Today, the school’s faculty and staff are an exceptional group in terms of research, teaching, community service, and engagement.

In the community, they are taking the lead with partnering agencies to address issues that include trauma-informed care, the aging population, drug courts, human trafficking, homeless veterans, children as caregivers, prisoner reintegration, and more.

Behind the scenes, they are building the knowledge used to address major social issues – helping individuals, families, and communities to thrive.

Aging
    • Colleen Galambos
      Applied Gerontology
      Aging in place
      Healthy aging
      Intergenerational family work
      Gerontechnology
      Long-term care
      Care transitions
      Cognitive and functional issues
      Training and education
      Development of educational competencies
    • Yura Lee
      Cognitive function in later life
      Caregivers of older adults with dementia
      Intergenerational support
    • Jerry Rousseau*
      Aging mindfully
      Caring for older family members
      Self-care for the caregiver
      Getting to know who you are becoming as you grow older
    • *Emeritus Faculty

Child Welfare
  • Colleen Janczewski
    Child welfare practice and policy
    Differential response
    Agency decision making
    Family engagement
  • Livy Malle
    Child welfare policy and practice
    Child maltreatment
    Family preservation
    Foster care
    Adoption
    Placement stability
    Childhood trauma
  • Steven McMurtry
    Child Protective Services
    Foster care
  • Joshua Mersky
    Adversity and trauma
    Resilience
    Child and family well-being
  • David J. Pate Jr.
    Father involvement
    Non-custodial parents
  • Dion Racks
    Child welfare practice and policy
    Children and families’ issues with trauma
    Adverse childhood experiences
    Supervision in child welfare
    Case management in child welfare
  • Susan Rose
    Child neglect
    Cross-cultural perspectives
    Child welfare policy and practice
  • Dimitri Topitzes
    Consequences and prevention of child maltreatment
  • Quinn Wilder
    Foster/adoptive parent training
    Out-of-home youth worker
    Competency development
  • *Emeritus Faculty
Community Practice
    • Candace E. Coates
      Community support program
      Targeted case management
    • Colleen Galambos
      Neighborhood responsiveness to aging-in-place
      Disability accommodation (ADA Standards for Accessible Design)
      Integrated approach to advance care planning
    • Rebecca Headley
      Neighborhood characteristics and local non-economic institutions on crime outcomes
    • Katie Mangan*
      Multi-systems
      Family therapy
      Home-based outreach
    • Susan Rose
      Local political organizing
    • Devin Thomas
      Sexual assault and domestic violence services
      Aging out of foster care
    • Jeanne Wagner
      Foster care
      Family preservation
      Child abuse and neglect
      Adoption
      Case management
      Safety in the field
    • Trina Salm Ward
      Community-engaged research
    • *Emeritus Faculty
Conflict Resolution and Social Work Practice
  • Roberta Hanus*
    Process-oriented leadership and conflict resolution
  • Jerry Rousseau*
    Learning the skills of successful conflict engagement
    Appreciating those who disturb us as necessary allies
  • *Emeritus Faculty
Corrections
  • Rebecca Headley
    Parole
    Prisoner re-entry
  • Thomas LeBel
    Intervention strategies with correctional clients
    Parole
    Prisoner reintegration
    Rehabilitation
    Women in jail
    Alternatives to incarceration
  • David J. Pate Jr.
    Child support
    Welfare and males
  • Susan Rose
    Women in jail
    Addiction and child welfare needs
  • Stan Stojkovic
    Prisons and jails
    Prison administration
    Prisoner re-entry
Crime
Criminal Justice Policy and Administration
Criminal Justice Process
Cultural Diversity Issues
  • Ruben Burgos
    Cultural sensitivity training
    in law enforcement
  • Tina Freiburger
     Race/ethnicity in the juvenile
    and adult criminal justice systems
  • Colleen Galambos
    Older adults
    access to health care and mental health care
  • Kimberly D. Hassell
    Race/ethnicity
    and the criminal justice system
  • Melinda S. Kavanaugh
    Latino families and caregiving
  • Thomas LeBel
    Formerly incarcerated persons’ simultaneous stigmas
  • Gwat-Yong Lie
    Diversity and its implications for social work education
    social work with Asian Americans
  • Katie Mangan*
    Multi-systems family therapy in an urban setting
  • Deborah Padgett*
    Diversity and organizations
  • Patricia Parker
    Cultural humility
    Cultural intelligence (CQ)
    Culturally competent social work practice
    Cultural inclusiveness in organizational culture
    Generational diversity
  • David J. Pate Jr.
    Black families
  • Devin Thomas
    Celebrating LGBTQ identities in social services settings
  • *Emeritus Faculty
Death and Dying
  • Colleen Galambos
    End-of-life decision making
  • Roberta Hanus*
    The intersection of spirituality and social work
  • Katie Mangan*
    Death in family systems
  • *Emeritus Faculty
Disabilities
Economic and Social Policy Issues
  • Colleen Galambos
    Healthcare policy access
    Medicare and Medicaid
    Retirement policies including Social Security
    Supplemental Security Income
    Americans with Disabilities Act
  • Colleen Janczewski
    Federal and state policy development
    Organizational theory
    Social workers as change agents
    Vulnerable families inside public systems
  • Thomas LeBel
     Civil disabilities of formerly incarcerated persons
    Prisoner reintegration
  • Steven McMurtry
     Human service organizations and non-profit agencies
  • Laura Otto-Salaj
    Working with human service organizations and non-profit agencies
    Organizational theory
    Social power
  • Deborah Padgett*
    Management and organization theory
  • David J. Pate Jr.
    Social welfare policy
    Non-custodial fathers
  • *Emeritus Faculty
Health and Medical
  • Lisa Berger
    Alcohol interventions in general medical settings
  • Steven G. Brandl
    Health and safety issues in policing
  • Colleen Galambos
    Healthcare services access and delivery
    Long-term care
    Care transitions
    Palliative care
  • Roberta Hanus*
    Chronic symptoms and community processes
  • Melinda S. Kavanaugh
     Health and social work
    Child caregivers
    Chronic illness and families
  • Katie Mangan*
    Medical social work
    Chronic and acute management in families
  • Joshua Mersky
    Population health
    Home visiting
  • Laura Otto-Salaj
    HIV/AIDS
    Alcohol and drug addiction
  • Jerry Rousseau*
    Exploring the psychological aspects of physical symptoms
  • Julie Schuppie
    Social and economic determinants of racial disparities in health
  • Dimitri Topitzes
    Health disparities
    Educational predictors of adult health
  • Trina Salm Ward
    Maternal and infant health
    Public health and social work
  • *Emeritus Faculty
Homelessness
  • Candace E. Coates
    Homeless/housing first
    Harm reduction housing
    Supportive permanent housing
  • Gwat-Yong Lie
    Chronicity
    Treatment of co-occurring disorders
    Targeted Case Management (TCM)
    Supportive permanent housing
    Housing First
  • Devin Thomas
    Supportive permanent housing
    Harm reduction housing first models
International Social Development
Juvenile Justice
  • Tina Freiburger
     Processing juveniles in the system
    Juvenile justice interventions
Law Enforcement
  • Police decision making and behavior
    Police policy
    Criminal investigation
    Police management
    Hazards of police work
  • Criminal investigation
    Police management
    Gang crimes intel
  • Police decision making and behavior
    Police policy
    Police management

    Data-driven policing
    Women and policing

LGBTQ
  • Colleen Galambos
    LGBTQ issues and older adults
  • Devin Thomas
    LGBTQ anti-violence work
    Sexual violence and intimate partner violence in LGBTQ identities
    Helping clients explore coming out process
    Exploring gender and sexuality
    Healthy relationships and sexuality
Mental Health/Mental Illness
  • Candace E. Coates
    Residential behavioral health care
    Dual diagnosis
  • Colleen Galambos
    Mental health in older adult populations
  • Roberta Hanus*
    Individual and couples/group process work
  • Melinda S. Kavanaugh
    Family caregiving across the life span
    Impact of illness on family
  • Gwat-Yong Lie
    Family preservation and the home-building model
    Family violence and its impact on children
  • Patricia Parker
    Family-centered practice
    Strength-based practice with families and community development
    Strength-based interventions
    Empowerment and family development practice
    Solution-focused interviewing
  • Dion Racks
    Working with families affected by mental illness in child welfare
    Understanding the effects of mental health within family systems
  • Susan Rose
    Mental health practice issues
    Managed behavioral health care
    Incarcerated mothers and pregnant women
    Training for adoption competent practice
  • Jerry Rousseau*
    Holiday stress reduction
    Practicing self-acceptance
    Individual, couple, and group psychotherapy
    Learning to live compassionately with a family member with mental illness
    Getting to know the shadow side of who we are
  • *Emeritus Faculty
Prevention and Intervention
  • Colleen Galambos
    Early illness detection and intervention
  • Gwat-Yong Lie
    Coping skills and survival strategies of battered partners and rape survivors
  • Joshua Mersky
    Prevention science
    Translational research
  • Dimitri Topitzes
    Family systems intervention
  • Trina Salm Ward
    Family adjustment to caring for newborn
    Preventing infant deaths
    Interventions to reduce risks in infant sleep environment
  • Quinn Wilder
    After school/community youth program quality
Research Methods and Data Analysis
  • Multivariate analysis
    Research design
    Questionnaire readability
  • Colleen Galambos
    Intervention research
    Health systems research
    Quality improvement research
    Quantitative and qualitative methods
  • Rebecca Headley
    Geospatial analysis of neighborhood effects on crime outcomes
  • Colleen Janczewski
    Applied evaluation study design
    Mixed methods
    Survey design and implementation
    Secondary analysis of administrative data
    Multivariate analyses and advanced statistical modeling
  • Joshua Mersky
    Program evaluation
    Longitudinal research
    Screening and assessment
    Randomized trials in community settings
  • Brief standardized scales
    Surveys
    Cohort studies
  • Quantitative and qualitative study design
    Program evaluation
    Randomized clinical trials
    Ethics in human subjects research
  • David J. Pate Jr.
    Qualitative research methods/focus groups
  • Use of rapid assessment instruments in clinical practice
    GIS
  • Trina Salm Ward
    Qualitative research methods
    Program evaluation
    Surveys
Social Work Ethics and Boundaries
  • Gwat-Yong Lie, Deborah Padgett*:
    Advanced ethics and boundaries for social workers
    and human service professionals
  • Advanced ethics and boundaries workshop
    Ethics and boundaries in a world of technology
    In-home services
    Hospice and palliative care
    Social work ethics in supervision
    Administration and macro practice
Substance Abuse
  • Treatment of alcohol use disorders – brief interventions
    and motivational interviewing
    Screening and assessment
  • Treatment issues for prisoners
    Recovery processes in addictions
    Drug courts
  • Co-occurring addictions
    Women’s treatment issues
    and risk factors
    Dual diagnosis
  • Dion Racks
    Substance abuse and its impact on families in child welfare
    Substance abuse and trauma
  • Screening and assessment
  • Working with substance affected families in child welfare
Supervision
  • Deborah Padgett*
    Leadership
    Management
  • Jeanne Wagner
    Effective leadership in human service organizations
  • Quinn Wilder
    After school/community youth program supervision skills and strategies
  • *Emeritus Faculty
Technology in Social Welfare Education
Trauma-Informed Care
  • Linda Britz
    Working with traumatized families and individuals
  • Crystal Carter
    Health disparities in underserved communities
    Trauma/community trauma
    Marriage and the family
    Women’s issues
  • Candace E. Coates
    Trauma-informed care and mental health
  • Colleen Galambos
    Older adult population
  • Joshua Mersky
    Trauma theory and research
    Trauma responsive practices
  • Devin Thomas
    LGBTQ individuals impacted by trauma
  • Dimitri Topitzes
    Basic and applied research into early trauma exposure
    Teaching and training in trauma-based interventions and practice principles
    Trauma resolution
Welfare Reform
  • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
    Child support
    Fathers