Emily M. Douglas - Innovations in Child and Family Policy: Multidisciplinary Research and Perspectives on Strengthening Children and Their Families

Loretta L. C. Brady, Ph.D. , is an assistant professor of psychology at Saint Anselm College where she teaches personality, health, organizational, and cross-cultural psychology courses. She received her doctoral degree from Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship with Families In Transition, a homeless housing service agency, in Manchester, New Hampshire. In the community she works as a clinical psychologist, specializing in treating trauma, addiction, and interventions to promote resiliency. She also continues her work with Families In Transition, where she has helped to design interventions to strengthen disadvantaged and multiply vulnerable families. Her research emphasizes trauma, resiliency, and the unique interconnections between poverty, violence, and addiction. She has expanded her research to examine the ways individual and community interventions to promote positive family interactions serve to protect children and families. The chapter included in this book represents recent community-based research conducted to support these efforts. She lives and works in Manchester, New Hampshire, with her husband and two children.

Melissa Brown, M.S.W. , is pursuing her doctoral degree in social work at Boston College, where she is now pursuing her doctoral degree in social work. In her doctoral dissertation, she is focusing on evaluating the efficacy of workplace resources in supporting employed caregivers of older adults. Ms. Brown is also a research associate at the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College, where she is involved in numerous research projects related to work-family issues and productive aging. Her research interests include the state and federal policy responses to changing workforce demographics and their role in promoting individual and family well-being.

Esther F. S. Carvalhaes is a Ph.D. student in the educational psychology department at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. She specializes in education policy analysis. She is interested in the application of statistical methods to the study of policy-related issues as well as program evaluation. Research interests include the impact of parental involvement in childrens academic development, large-scale educational assessment, educational resources allocation, and educational access and quality in developing countries.

Jason Castillo, Ph.D. , is an assistant professor of social work at the University of Utah. His scholarship focuses on child and family well-being with an emphasis on fathers, notably low-income, non-resident fathers. Dr. Castillos doctorate is in social work from Arizona State University. Dr. Castillo has presented his own research at numerous national and international professional conferences and has published several articles in peer reviewed sources. His chapter in this book reflects his interest in examining the relationship between non-resident fathers social networks and the establishment of child support orders.

Corey J. Colyer, Ph.D. , is an assistant professor in the Division of Sociology and Anthropology, located in the School of Applied Social Sciences at West Virginia University. Dr. Colyers area of specialty focuses on linkages between the criminal justice system and human services. His current research program examines interdisciplinary dynamics in child welfare proceedings. Through this project, he works closely with West Virginia state government. Dr. Colyers work has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals including Children and Youth Services Review and Criminal Justice PolicyReview. He has made presentations at national conferences including the American Sociological Association and the National Research Conference on Child and Family Programs. Dr. Colyer holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Prior to joining the faculty at West Virginia University, he was a research associate at the University of Michigans Institute for Social Research.

Terry-Ann L. Craigie, Ph.D. , received her doctorate in economics from Michigan State University in August 2009. She is now a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Research on Child Well-being at Princeton University and is under the mentorship of Dr. Sara McLanahan. Her scholarship focuses on the relationship between paternal presence in the home and child well-being. In particular, her dissertation distinguished between family structure and stability effects of paternal presence on early child development. Her contribution to this book examines the issue in more specificity, by estimating the effect of paternal incarceration on early child cognitive and behavioral outcomes.

Amy DAndrade, Ph.D. , received an M.S.W. and Ph.D. from the School of Social Welfare at University of CaliforniaBerkeley. She is currently an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at San Jose State University, where her research interests focus on the public child welfare system, particularly policy and practice issues affecting parental reunification with children removed for maltreatment. She has conducted research studies on reunification services, concurrent planning, reunification bypass, reunification for incarcerated parents, and Californias reduction of reunification time frames for parents of children under three. She has presented her work at academic and professional conferences, and published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on child welfare issues. Prior to her academic career, Dr. DAndrade was a child we

Judy Doktor, Ph.D. , has been actively engaged both professionally and personally as a parent advocate and trainer for over thirty years. Through her career as a teacher, school administrator, and a director she has pioneered programs for special learners that enhance their learning opportunities and that focus on inclusion. She has served as a fair hearing officer, and an evaluation specialist for family resource center programs in Hawaii, Florida, Kentucky, and Indiana. She has served as an expert witness in numerous special education meetings and mediations as a strident advocate. Her masters degree in public administration from the University of Hawaii combined with her Ph.D. in educational policy from Vanderbilt University affords her the ability to understand the complex social systems that families with children must navigate. Judy is currently busy writing implementation grants for charter schools, with particular emphasis on programs for children with exceptional needs. Her teaching and scholarship examines ways to enhance inclusion and participation among students and their parents as well as enhancing opportunities to improve training for teachers of special learners in professional development schools and in universitybased teacher training programs. Judy is currently the director of school policy with the Resource Center for Research on Parenting as well as a university faculty member in education. Her scholarship has been presented and published in national and international contexts.

Audrey Foster, B.S. , is a data technician at the Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University.

James P. Gleeson, Ph.D., A.C.S.W. , is an associate professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago. He has extensive experience as a child welfare practitioner, administrator, consultant, and researcher. He has been principal investigator for a number of federal-and state-funded child welfare research, curriculum development, and training projects. Dr. Gleesons research and publications focus on kinship care policy and practice, child welfare training, how child welfare workers learn, and evaluation of child welfare programs and practice. He is coeditor (with Dr. Creasie Finney Hairston) of