Ph.D. Faculty Profiles
More than 40 faculty members teach or are available for individual work with Ph.D. students. Faculty members have a variety of research interests including child welfare, mentoring, mental health, aging, and juvenile justice.
Sandra C. Anderson, Ph.D. (Emeritus) - Substance Use and Abuse, Women and LGBT, Mixed method
Ben Anderson-Nathe, Ph.D. - Youth work, Critical Theory, Gender/Sexuality, Youth and Youth Workers, Populations related to Sexuality, Gender, and Systems of Oppression, Qualitative method
Jennifer Blakeslee, Ph.D. - Child Welfare, Foster youth aging out of care, Mixed method
Eileen M. Brennan, Ph.D. (Emeritus) - Mental Health, Work-Life Balance, Social Sustainability, Parents of Youth with Disabilities, Emerging Adults--Behavioral Health Concerns, Mixed method
Stephanie A. Bryson, Ph.D. - Health and mental health service delivery to stigmatized groups, Socioemotional and material asset-building in child welfare, Program evaluation, intervention research, and implementation science, Cultural studies, postcolonial theory, queer disability theory, Comparative method
Katharine Cahn, Ph.D. - Child Welfare, Systems Change, Leadership, Racial Equity, Children and Families, Leaders (Supervisors & Managers), Mixed method
Mandy Davis, Ph.D. - Trauma Informed Care, Programs, Organizations, Systems, Mixed method
William "Ted" Donlan, Ph.D. - Cultural Impact on Social Service Delivery, Unions and Social workers, Immigrants, especially Latinos of Mexican-origin, Social Work Labor/Union/Political Activists, Qualitative method
Erin Flynn, Ph.D. - Early Childhood, Language and Literacy, Storytelling, Underserved Early Childhood Populations in the U.S. - Lower SES, Multilingual, Mixed method
Barbara Friesen, Ph.D. (Emeritus) - Mental Health, Family and Youth Peer Support, Policy Change, Children and youth with mental health conditions and their families, Mixed method
Carrie Furrer, Ph.D. - Child Welfare, Early Childhood Intervention, Motivation/Engagement, Child Welfare, Quantitative method
Sarah Geenen, Ph.D. - Foster Care, Adolescence, Self Determination, Youth who typically face additional barriers in their transition to adulthood, including youth with disabilities and youth exiting foster care, Mixed method
Beth L. Green, Ph.D. - Early childhood Program Evaluation, Child Welfare Prevention, Families and their children aged 0-5 who are at risk for negative outcomes, Quantitative method
Jill Hoffman, Ph.D. - Early childhood, social-emotional developmental and mental health, collaboration between early childhood serving systems, organizational climate in early education settings, Quantitative method
Thomas Keller, Ph.D. - Youth Development, Mentoring, Prevention Science, Children and Adolescents, Youth Aging Out of Care, Mixed method
Ericka Kimball, Ph.D. - Domestic Violence, Parenting, Health care, People exposed to domestic violence during childhood, Mixed method
Susanne Klawetter, Ph.D. - Social determinants of health, maternal and child health disparities, maternal mental health, infant mental health and early childhood intervention.
Junghee Lee, Ph.D. - Social Determinants of Health, Health Equity, Mental Health, Newly arrived Asian immigrant families and refugees, Racial/ethnic minorities, Quantitative method
Bowen McBeath, Ph.D. - Human Service Organizations, Management, Frontline Workers, Human service organizations, managers, and frontline workers; also, child welfare populations, Mixed method
Gita Mehrotra, Ph.D. - Social Work Education, IPV, Intersectional Identities, Women and Queer/LGBTQ People of Color, Qualitative method
Jana L. Meinhold, Ph.D. - Health Equity, Family Transitions, Social Sustainability, Racially and Ethnically Diverse Families and Communities, Organizations in Portland focused on Health Equity, Mixed method
Keva Miller, Ph.D. - Racial Disproportionality, Criminal Justice, Child Welfare, Children of criminal justice involved parents, Quantitative method
Michele Morales, Ph.D. - Addiction Science, American History, LGBT Studies, American Culture, Historical Texts
Miranda Mosier, Ph.D. - Access to higher education for first-generation and other underrepresented students, youth aging out of foster care, critical theory, critical pedagogy, Qualitative method.
Christina Nicolaidis, MD - Community-Based Participatory Research, Health Equity, Social Determinants of Health, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Autistic Adults, People with Disabilities, Substance Abuse, or Mental Health Disorders, Mixed method
Laura Nissen, Ph.D. - Substance Abuse, Community Development, Systems Change, Youth, Youth Workers and/or Professionals, Social Workers, Qualitative method
Mary Oschwald, Ph.D. - Interpersonal Violence, People with Disabilities, Peer-Based Interventions, Adults with Disabilities, Cross-Disability, Social Justice Lens, Mixed method
Laurie E Powers, Ph.D. - Emeritus, Transition to Adulthood, Mental Health Empowerment, Interpersonal Violence, Youth in Foster Care, Youth and Adults with Diverse Disabilities, Mixed method
E. Roberto Orellana, Ph.D. - Drug Abuse and HIV Prevention, Trauma-Related Risk Behaviors, Global Health, Ethnic and sexual minorities at high risk for HIV and drug abuse, Homeless, Indigenous populations, Mixed method
Dora M. Raymaker, Ph.D. - Dora M. Raymaker is a systems scientist, Co-director of the Academic Autism Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (aaspire.org), and associate editor of the academic journal Autism in Adulthood. Their research interests include community-engaged practice, systems thinking, measurement, disability, and the dynamics at the intersection of science and society. Dr. Raymaker conducts intervention services research in collaboration with the Autistic and mental health communities to improve employment outcomes and reduce discrimination and stigma. In their remaining three minutes of time, they enjoy writing own voices speculative fiction and making multimedia art doraraymaker.com.
Jessica Rodriguez-Jenkins, Ph.D. - Support for Latino families with young children; prevention of child maltreatment; disproportionality in the child welfare system; parent engagement and parent training for families involved in the child welfare system; early childhood mental health; culturally informed engagement, assessment, and intervention.
Jessica Schmidt, Ph.D. - Foster Care, Youth Work, Intervention, Systems involved youth and young adults, Mixed method
Joan Shireman, Ph.D. (Emeritus) - Child Welfare, Children and families at risk of or in foster care, Mixed method
Michael Taylor, Ph.D. (Emeritus) - Mental Health, Trauma, Addictions, Young adults surviving trauma and impact on mental health, Mixed method
Amie Thurber, Ph.D. - Community practice, neighborhoods, relationship of place to well-being, social movements, theories and processes of social change, social justice education, place based interventions, social action group work, critical participatory action research, Mixed Methods
Mathew Uretsky, Ph.D. - Linked administrative data systems, parent training, child behavior change, inter-system and cross-level influences on the academic and behavioral development of children and youth, Quantitative Data Analysis
Stephanie Wahab, Ph.D. - Critical Studies, Violence, Motivational Interviewing, Interdisciplinary and intersectional research that engages issues of inequality, Qualitative method
Janet Walker, Ph.D. - Training Effectiveness in Human Services, Positive Developmental and Empowerment Interventions, Peer Support Strategies, Youth/young adults with serious mental health conditions, Human service practitioners, Peer support providers, Mixed method
Diane Yatchmenoff, Ph.D. - Trauma Informed Practice, Adults with histories of trauma and behavioral health concerns, Mixed method