Hamovitch PI
Summer 2016
A research publication of the Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services at the USC School of Social Work
Students net unprecedented funding
Federal grants are becoming increasingly competitive, but four PhD students met the challenge. Second annual spring symposium highlights research efforts of master’s students
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A few years ago, having one PhD student secure a federal grant from the National Institutes of Health to support dissertationrelated research would have been impressive. Now it’s becoming an expectation at the USC School of Social Work. This year, four students received dissertation awards, a prestigious honor that signals the beginning of a promising research career.
Students delve into online comments following articles about sexual assault to explore rape culture
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“These grants are difficult to get for a reason,” said Michalle Mor Barak, Dean’s Professor of Social Work and Business and outgoing director of the school’s doctoral program. “The selection committees are very rigorous in terms of the science behind the proposals. It’s not just about the funding either. It’s the recognition that your work is important.” Funding | continued on page 10
Expert on homelessness and HIV/AIDS selected for prestigious national mentoring program
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Vol. 6, Issue 2 Summer 2016 From the Director This issue of Hamovitch PI is largely dedicated to achievements of our doctoral and MSW students as vital actors in the research enterprise of our school. The success of our doctoral students in securing federal funding is as thrilling as our MSW students’ increasing engagement in research activities is impressive. Among other topics, we also highlight three incoming assistant professors who will further enhance our research faculty’s innovative impact on science and the community. This is the last issue of Hamovitch PI both for this academic year and for me as its founder. As a part of the restructuring of the school’s leadership to better serve its more than 3,500 students and 400 faculty members, I am transitioning to a new role as associate dean for faculty affairs and senior fellow for global research impact. Responsibility for this publication will be assumed by the incoming vice dean for research. When I conceptualized this publication five years ago, I wrote in this space that this new quarterly newsletter “seeks to inform colleagues, professionals and students in the field of social work about innovative translational research conducted at the center.” Today, it reaches thousands of readers and judging from the appreciation communicated to us, it is successfully serving its purpose.
Haluk Soydan, PhD Director of the Hamovitch Center
Dean Marilyn Flynn Director Haluk Soydan Editor Eric Lindberg
Hamovitch PI is a research newsletter published quarterly by the Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services at the USC School of Social Work. Send questions, comments and reprint requests to elindber@usc.edu
Front page: PhD students Kate Sullivan, Jeremy Gibbs, Kim Brimhall and Robin Petering (left to right) secured competitive federal funding to support their dissertation work. Front Page Photo/Eric Lindberg
Three new professors bring unique areas of expertise A trio of new assistant professors joining the USC School of Social Work this fall is continuing the school’s trend toward diverse and interdisciplinary scholarship. Daniel Hackman, Mónica Pérez Jolles areas with the most socioeconomic disadand B.K. Elizabeth Kim have multifaceted vantages had much higher risk. research interests that range from exploring “What is it about poverty and the difhow early life socioenvironmental factors ferent types of experiences people have influence later risk of psychopathology growing up that shapes their development and health problems to examining how to and risk of chronic disease?” he said. “Right improve services and opportunities for vul- now, we are learning more about how connerable children and their caregivers. text influences psychological and neurobio“These three new assistant professors are logical development, but the implications highly skilled scholars whose innovative of that for health and the outcomes we care research represents a valuable contribution about for children and adolescents as they to the school,” said Haluk Soydan, associate age are less known.” dean for faculty affairs and senior fellow Intrigued by the interplay between early for global research impact. social and environmental “We are excited to welcome experiences and later them to our faculty and “I’m excited about the health and psychological look forward to helping interest, openness and development, he pursued them continue their devela doctorate in clinical psyleadership in taking opment as outstanding chology at the University that transdisciplinary independent researchers.” of Pennsylvania and approach, both at Hackman grew up recently served as a in Santa Monica in a Robert Wood Johnson the school and also family that emphasized Foundation Health and the university more social justice and equality, Society Scholar at the broadly.” instilling a sense that University of Wisconsin. he should do what he During his studies Daniel Hackman could to help people and and burgeoning research improve the world. career, Hackman has After studying neuroscience at Brown tended to focus on two aspects of psyUniversity as an undergraduate, he chology and neurobiology: stress reacreturned to Los Angeles County to work tivity and executive function. The former as a public health policy advocate involved refers to how people respond to challenges in grassroots community organizing. In in their environment, whereas the latter particular, he focused on seeking broad deals with how individuals regulate their solutions to reduce children’s risk of devel- responses to their environment. oping chronic diseases. This unusual confluence of fields, including “One of the formative aspects of that population health, sociology, psychology experience is that it really shaped how I and neuroscience, left Hackman yearning see my work through a social justice lens,” for a setting that would not only permit but Hackman said. encourage an transdisciplinary mindset. When examining rates of chronic dis- “It’s certainly part of ease and risk factors by legislative districts, what drew me to USC,” he it became clear that individuals living in said. “I’m excited about the
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interest, openness and leadership in taking that transdisciplinary approach, both at the school and also the university more broadly.” In his new position, Hackman plans to continue exploring the connections among early experiences, psychology, neuroscience and human development, in addition to testing the use of virtual reality technology in his research. In recent years, he has started developing virtual models of neighborhood environments, in collaboration with colleagues at ETH Zurich, to examine in real time how different contexts and conditions can affect an individual’s response to stress and capacity to manage challenges. He hopes to continue and expand this work at USC. “Something has always attracted me to bringing together different fields to address big questions,” Hackman said. Similar to her new colleague, Pérez Jolles is also interested in issues of social justice, socioeconomic status and child development. Her research interests center on underserved children and caregivers, including racial and ethnic minorities and individuals with co-occurring physical and mental health issues. A Colombia native, Pérez Jolles began her professional career in Bogotá after earning a degree in psychology from Santo Tomás University. She worked with families experiencing extreme poverty and limited access to basic services, many of whom had migrated from rural areas due to violence or lack of opportunities. “The common denominator that struck me was the lack of access and isolation of these families,” she said. “I just found it extremely unfair. That certainly informed my efforts when I came to the United States.” Pérez Jolles completed a master’s degree in psychology from North Carolina Central University. Based on her experience working in the community, she recognized the need to better inform policy makers and find practical solutions to the lack of health services access and quality for underserved families. To that end, she obtained a doctorate in health policy and management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and recently completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, where she focused on addressing health and social inequities by evaluating system capacity and individual-level interventions.
New assistant professors Daniel Hackman, Mónica Pérez Jolles and B.K. Elizabeth Kim (top to bottom) have expertise in child and youth development, neuroscience, psychology and vulnerable populations such as children from disadvantaged backgrounds and individuals with co-occurring physical and mental health problems.
Photos/Courtesy of Daniel Hackman, Mónica Pérez Jolles and B.K. Elizabeth Kim
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“I’m concerned with the quality of services that children and their caregivers receive, especially those from low-income or racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds,” she said. “My research focuses on why and how safety-net agencies innovate and get communities and clients involved in innovation.” Because social work is grounded in values of equality, social justice and inclusion, Pérez Jolles found it an ideal match for her research agenda. In particular, she is encouraged by the increasing focus on interdisciplinary collaboration in social work, in addition to USC’s strength in systems and organizational research. Having a research center with dedicated resources for junior faculty members to move their research forward, including statistical consulting and grant proposal development, is one major benefit that drew her to the USC School of Social Work. She also values the school’s engagement with the communities surrounding the two main USC campuses and the diversity of the Los Angeles region. “There is a lot of opportunity and hope,” Pérez Jolles said. “There is also a lot of work to be done. We still have millions of uninsured children and caregivers, many without secure housing and without secure meals each day.” In the coming years, she plans to conduct research on a model of care for children known as the pediatric medical home. In particular, she is interested in determining whether coordinating care among providers and other agencies such as child welfare services improves services for children with complex health care and social needs, including chronic conditions such as obesity, psychiatric disorders and development delays. “Are they successfully implementing this model of care and are they able to sustain those efforts?” she said. “They are being asked to do a lot with few resources.” Faculty | continued on page 9
Once intimidating and foreign, research is slowly but surely becoming a common pursuit in the master’s program at the USC School of Social Work.
Photo/Eric Lindberg
During a recent symposium hosted by the Phi Alpha Honor the honor society, which recognizes and promotes outstanding Society, several master’s students described their recent forays into scholarship and student achievement in social work. the research world, from spending time with chronically homeless She certainly wasn’t planning to pursue a doctorate, which she is individuals who had just received housing to refining an applica- now considering after becoming involved with a research project tion for tablet computers designed to help older adults in Taiwan assessing the needs of homeless women living in the Skid Row manage their diabetes. area and other regions of downtown Los Angeles. “As a social worker, research is very important because that’s how “Every student has to take a research course, but nobody talks about we learn more about vulnerable populations,” said Sumala Haque, what you can do with that knowledge — how it translates into your the honor society’s research liaison. “We try to find solutions, and profession and what you can do with it on the side,” she said. Pham encouraged her fellow stuwithout research you can’t help people.” dents to look for research opportuniThe success of developing programs ties, not only because the experience of and preventive measures that are effecengaging in a real-world study and pretive at addressing social problems senting findings at events like the studepends largely on rigorous scientific dent symposium can add depth to their studies, she explained. resume, but also because understanding Events like the student research how research serves as a foundation for symposium are also critical to the practice is critical. success of the school, and not only “There is an importance in talking because of new national accreditation about research and how impactful it can guidelines for schools of social work be,” she said. “The only way you can talk that call for getting master’s students about and solve issues is if you have eviinvolved in research. dence, which comes from research.” “Schools must develop ways of Unlike Pham, Siying “Shelley” Wang engaging master’s students in research joined the master’s program with a that is effective and makes a difference,” strong desire to get involved in research. said Charles Kaplan, research proIn fact, the first-year MSW student fessor and associate dean of research at the USC School of Social Work. “Phi began volunteering as a member of Associate Professor Shinyi Wu’s research Alpha has taken the lead in helping team, which is developing and testing a students do research that is real — not program on tablet computers that may just a class assignment or term paper help Taiwanese older adults manage but really integrated into a research their diabetes and related health issues. program that results in publications While taking a user experience and grants.” design class at UCLA Extension prior He noted that the quality of the to entering the MSW program, Wang student symposiums — this was the stumbled across a description of Wu’s second spring event — has led school project and thought it might be a good leaders to provide additional resources to help the honor society immerse First-year MSW student Siying “Shelley” Wang discusses her opportunity to practice her new skills. She emailed the associate professor and more students in research culture. work on a research team exploring the use of technology to asked if she could volunteer, explaining “This is a student movement,” Kaplan improve diabetes self-care among older adults in Taiwain. that she could help evaluate and test the said. “If it’s going to succeed, it’s not going to come from the administration or the faculty but students functionality of the diabetes self-care app from the user perspective. “She let me sit in on the research meetings,” Wang said. “I seeing the value of this experience and the value of research in their just took the initiative to suggest doing user testing on the app. professional career development.” One student leading the charge is Huong Pham, president of Through this project I demonstrated my passion for Phi Alpha at USC and a second-year MSW student. She entered research and technical skills, so they brought me on the master’s program with little interest in research until she joined as a research assistant.”
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When she heard that Caroline Lim, a PhD student who is evaluating treatment and recovery among Asian Americans with schizophrenia as her dissertation project, needed master’s students who could speak Chinese or Vietnamese, Wang jumped at the opportunity. After two months of training on the research process and how to evaluate symptoms of schizophrenia, the Shanghai native has been helping Lim collect data on barriers and facilitators of recovery, including ensuring that participants understand and complete the informed consent process. Wang plans to earn her clinical license in social work and practice in the field after graduating, although she didn’t rule out pursuing a doctorate at some point. Regardless of her ultimate career path, she is confident that developing research skills and knowledge of the evidence base behind clinical practices will be valuable. “Research is essential, especially to clinicians,” she said. “It help clinicians not only become more accountable and consistent in their practice, but also demonstrate how clinical practices play a role in fostering social change.” Helping improve quality of life for marginalized and vulnerable populations is also a major force driving Gilma Palma’s work. The second-year MSW student is particularly interested in pursuing research on trauma experienced during migration. During her field placement with the Los Angeles Unified School District, she helped develop a support group for undocumented immigrants and their families, particularly youths who had migrated during the previous 3 months and spoke little English. “I’ve seen some articles, but I feel there isn’t enough research about the trauma of migration and how it’s affecting their assimilation and quality of life,” she said. The issue is also personal for Palma, whose parents both immigrated to the United States in the 1980s to escape civil war in Central America. “I’ve seen how that trauma has played out in their lives,” she said. “It’s not something we talk about, but now that I have this education and trauma lens, I am able to understand it better. A lot of the youths I’m seeing now have had similar experiences.” She also is helping Lim with her study on schizophrenia and Asian Americans, many of whom are first-generation immigrants and have similar struggles with assimilation and trauma.
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Photo/Eric Lindberg
4 Students showcase their research
Palma said conducting research with these vulnerable groups can help her and other students gain a better understanding of their challenges and needs. “Most of us are going to be on the frontlines, working with these populations that don’t have a voice or someone to advocate for them,” she said. “We can advocate for them, we can advocate for policy change, we can advocate for funding.” She added that she is grateful for the opportunity to share some of the lessons she learned during the student symposium and is hopeful that the work of the honor
Gilma Palma, a second-year master’s student in social work, speaks with an attendee following a student research symposium. She is interested in exploring the effects of trauma during migration.
society and school leaders will encourage other MSW students to collect their own data and give similar presentations. “I’ve grown so much in the program, personally and professionally,” she said. “It has inspired me to do my own research and empowered me in ways I never expected.” t
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Gundersen said, including several being led by Facebook in collabocommenters who disclosed their own ration with a federal agency and experience with sexual assault or rape. national suicide prevention hot“Some people said it was the line. Facebook users can report suifirst time they had ever told their cidal comments posted by a friend, story,” she said. “To see these indiprompting an email to that user viduals coming forward and pubwith the hotline number and a link licly disclosing their experiences, to start a confidential chat session sometimes in great detail, was with a crisis worker. very empowering to see as a social However, she noted that much worker and researcher.” more research is needed regarding To handle the glut of data, how these sensitive topics are being Zaleski and Gundersen enlisted the discussed online. support of three MSW students — “We can do so much good with Jessica Baes, Ely Estupinian and this epidemic online — those aveAlyssa Vergara — who helped colnues can be instrumental to potenlect comments, identify themes and tially getting more sexual assault track down relevant research for a reports and getting a survivor into publication outlining their findings. therapy sooner,” Zaleski said. “But Participating in the study was we need to understand what is an eye-opening experience for going on in the online community Estupinian, who had not been before we can address it.” aware of the concept of rape culGundersen is also hopeful that ture. After sifting through hunthe study will inspire ongoing dreds of comments following USA research. She has been devoted to Today articles, she began noticing developing a better understanding themes like victim blaming, dismis- A study led by Kristen Zaleski (left), a clinical assistant professor, and of issues involving rape and sexual sive views toward sexual assault and Kristin Kay Gundersen, a research fellow who recently completed her assault since working with a campus double standards. MSW at the USC School of Social Work, examined public attitudes toward assault and student resource center “People would say it’s OK for a sexual assault and rape following online news articles. as an undergraduate at UC Irvine. young boy to be sexually assaulted She also cofounded a nonprofit by an older woman, but it’s not OK for a Vergara had worked as a program evaluator organization, We Step into the Light, to young girl to be sexually assaulted by an prior to pursuing her master’s degree at USC help survivors of sexual assault and proolder man,” she said. “It definitely changed and was familiar with the research world, but mote violence prevention through art and my perspective on how society views this as said she truly fell in love with research during personal narratives. acceptable.” her first semester after taking a research “These survivors are incredibly resilient, It has also changed how she engages methods course taught by Zaleski. but they are stigmatized,” Gundersen said. in discussions of sexual assault and rape. When she learned that the researchers “Some of them go through their whole Estupinian has several friends in the mili- were seeking volunteers to aid in the study, lives without telling a single person. I saw tary and had even considered joining her- she embraced the opportunity. a dichotomy between survivors who had self; now when they discuss sexual assault Although she acknowledged that it was resources and those who did not and how in the armed forces, she is more forceful in difficult at times to sort through pages of that affected their resilience.” expressing her opinions and confronting vitriolic comments — one article involving She is considering pursuing a doctorate others who contend that women should the Bill Cosby scandal had more than 2,000 after working in the field for several years, not serve in combat roles. comments alone — she is hopeful that the and plans to continue her research into “I probably wouldn’t have challenged them study will raise awareness and slowly start online discussions of sexual assault and as much,” she said. “I’ve heard them talk to change online behavior. rape. In fact, she has already interviewed about this before, but I would just say, oh, “Seeing it in black and white and looking 20 individuals who publicly disclosed in an that sucks. Now I tell them that it’s not OK.” at the numbers may help people realize online forum their personal stories of being In contrast, Vergara has always been how the comments they are making off assaulted, with the goal of raising awareespecially sensitive to issues surrounding the cuff are contributing to rape culture,” ness of how the experience can affect resilsexual assault, partly because by her late Vergara said. ience and recovery. teens she knew about a dozen women who Zaleski echoed that sentiment, describing “Hopefully this can lead to prevenhad been raped. potential strategies to provide support tion, policy change and really changing “It had already touched me through the to survivors of rape and sexual assault in the conversation we have about rape as a people I know and love,” she said. “When online forums. society,” she said. “Instead of blaming the people make comments in that vein, I For instance, social workers could develop survivors, we need to hold the perpetraalways call them on it right away.” a model similar to efforts to prevent suicide tors accountable.” t
Photo/iSTock
Photo/Courtesy of Kristin Kay Gundersen
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Is pop culture perpetuating rape culture? A new research study delved into a frequently unpalatable environment, the comment section of online news articles, to explore public attitudes toward rape and sexual assault. Led by Kristen Zaleski, a clinical assistant professor at the USC School of Social Work, and Kristin Kay Gundersen, a research fellow and MSW student, the study examined comments following articles in four major U.S. periodicals. “A lot of survivors of sexual assault search online for treatment and guidance about what to do following an assault,” Zaleski said. “We were curious about how they were treated and formed their identity in the wake of this trauma.” From December 2014 to March 2015, the research team sifted through thousands
of comments following articles with “sexual assault” or “rape” in the title that appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. During that period, revelations of alleged sexual assault by Bill Cosby, the retraction of a Rolling Stone article about a falsified account of group sexual assault at the University of Virginia, and reporting on the prevalence of rape and sexual harassment in India drew numerous headlines. “When we first started delving into issues involving survivors of trauma, particularly sexual assaults, we started to notice in pop
culture and the media this epidemic of rape culture,” said Gundersen. “It was quite shocking, honestly.” Rape culture refers to the perpetuation of beliefs that victims of sexual assault or rape are responsible for the traumatic experience rather than the assailant, in addition to broader views of violence and sexism against women or other groups as trivial or even acceptable. “Survivors were being blamed for what happened to them,” Gundersen said. “In instances of women who came forward about being raped or sexually harassed by Bill Cosby, they were called gold diggers or liars who were trying to get money from a celebrity.” The researchers found these types of victim-blaming statements after all but one of the 50-plus articles they reviewed. They also noted the prevalence of “trolls,” or individuals who purposefully use inflammatory and racist language to instigate conflict. However, the research team also noted responses of support for the victim,
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Professor selected for national mentoring program
How can global businesses support their employees? A new book examines how companies in diverse international settings can assist their employees with personal problems that adversely affect performance and productivity.
One of USC’s foremost experts on homelessness and HIV/AIDS will share her knowledge with promising scholars as part of a prestigious national mentoring initiative. Suzanne Wenzel, the Richard M. and Ann L. Thor Professor in Urban Social Development at the USC School of Social Work, has been selected by the American Psychological Association to participate in its Cyber Mentors program. The project is designed to prepare doctoral-level behavioral and social scientists for an independent research career focused on HIV/AIDS among vulnerable populations, including racial and ethnic minority communities. “I see this initiative as critical because persons of color are disproportionately burdened by the AIDS epidemic, as are gay and bisexual men and people living in poverty and homelessness,” Wenzel said. “This overrepresentation among people of color has persisted since the early 1980s; they make up the majority of people living with and dying from AIDS.” As a researcher, Wenzel has devoted much of her career to exploring and addressing the health-related needs of vulnerable individuals, particularly those experiencing homelessness in urban settings. She will work with a protégé in the Cyber Mentors program, offering one-on-one consultation, crafting an individualized career development plan and reviewing research proposals and manuscripts. The two-year program also features online seminars that address issues related to research, methods and ethics relevant to developing a successful independent research career. According to the American Psychological Association, a major goal of the initiative is to increase the number of underrepresented scholars and researchers interested in exploring HIV/AIDS in minority communities. Vulnerable populations face challenges ranging from disparities in the availability and accessibility of treatment services to stigma and bias related to HIV/AIDS. “Testing rates are still not as high as we would like them to be, in part due to lack of provider uptake but also because not everyone receives routine health care,” she said. As part of a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Wenzel discovered that access to
Photo/Courtesy of Suzanne Wenzel
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“It’s personally rewarding to have been asked to serve as a mentor, but much more important is that I have the chance to facilitate someone else’s success.” Suzanne Wenzel and awareness of medication that reduces the risk of contracting HIV (known as preexposure prophylaxis) is all but nonexistent among individuals experiencing homelessness. She plans to emphasize her knowledge of health disparities and other risk factors in her work in the Cyber Mentors program, which she characterized as reflective of the USC School of Social Work’s commitment to impactful and rigorous research and critical to turning the tide in the battle against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. “It’s personally rewarding to have been asked to serve as a mentor, but much more important is that I have the chance to facilitate someone else’s success,” she said. “I can help someone build her or his career and help that person make a difference.” t
Global Perspectives of Employee Assistance Programs is the first book to explore the employee assistance program (EAP) concept in the international context, said R. Paul Maiden, executive vice dean and professor at the USC School of Social Work. “There has been enormous growth in this field in the global marketplace,” said Maiden, who coedited the book. “These companies all have the same problems we do, but there are people out there doing a lot of different things we aren’t doing in the United States.” EAPs are generally intended to help employees address personal issues that might affect their job performance, such as substance abuse, stress, health concerns, financial or legal problems and work–family balance. They typically involve services like short-term counseling and referrals to other health or mental health providers. Although the programs have been prevalent among U.S. businesses for decades, they are relatively new to the international scene. Maiden has witnessed the model expand in popularity worldwide since the 1990s, when he worked in the South African mining industry to develop an EAP for serious drug and alcohol problems, workplace violence and HIV/AIDS issues. He later helped launch a similar program in the Russian oil fields and ultimately received two Senior Fulbright Scholar awards related to his work in both countries. As international companies began embracing the idea and professional organizations for EAP providers emerged, Maiden said demand increased for guidance on how to adopt EAPs in new, diverse settings. “Their human resources professionals started attending our conferences in the United States and we started getting invited to companies to develop these programs,” he said. “As companies became more multinational, they realized it was not just about supporting the expats working abroad but also local populations.” One advantage that many companies in the international marketplace have enjoyed is learning from the Book | continued on page 12
Faculty | from page 3 Kim is also interested in child and youth development, specifically in terms of prevention and intervention efforts that promote social, behavioral and emotional health and reduce delinquency and violence during adolescence. As an undergraduate at UCLA, she volunteered at Camp Kilpatrick, a youth probation program in the Santa Monica Mountains. Once a week, she traveled to the camp to tutor young men who were preparing for their high school exit exam. One 17-year-old stood out to her in particular. He had made tremendous progress in the program but seemed to become more fearful as his release date approached. He was worried he would return to his neighborhood and fall back into his old habits. “That made me really think about what we could do outside of these locked-up facilities, what we could do out in the community to support these young men so they don’t end up coming back,” Kim said. “That pushed me toward social work.” While completing her MSW at the University of Michigan, Kim conducted a yearlong ethnographic study for her thesis on the complex journey of homeless pregnant and parenting teenagers. Witnessing young women who faced homelessness, domestic violence, foster care, expulsion and other negative outcomes opened her eyes to the importance of prevention. She collaborated with a local homeless shelter to secure funding for a science-based prevention program that mobilizes community coalitions to promote healthy youth development. Although she enjoyed working at the grassroots level, however, Kim felt drawn to policy work as she entered the doctoral program at the University of Washington. “I needed to do something on the mezzo or macro level,” she said. “Clinical work is really important, but I wanted to have a broader impact, to use research to inform
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policy and practice.” That desire led her to work with researchers on the Community Youth Development Study, a randomized controlled trial of a youth delinquency prevention system known as Communities That Care. Based on scientific evidence, the system helps community members determine which preventive approach is most appropriate for their neighborhood. Rather than focusing on negative outcomes and factors that increase delinquency, Kim decided to approach the problem from the opposite end of the spectrum, exploring protective factors that prevent adolescents from engaging in risky behaviors. Her research on the topic suggested a promising effect of increasing protective factors based on the social development model. “If you provide a young person with positive opportunities, teach them skills to become engaged and provide recognition, they will be positively bonded to you,” Kim said, thus increasing the youth’s receptivity to advice such as avoiding drugs and staying in school. During her most recent work as a postdoctoral scholar with the School of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley, she has examined the effects of school-based prevention strategies on the growth of protective factors among racially and ethnically diverse students in a Bay Area school district. She plans to continue exploring social and emotional learning programs that focus on building not just academic abilities but also relationship and problem-solving skills. She ultimately hopes to develop a network of adolescents that can contribute to her research on delinquency and violence prevention programs, allowing them to add their perspective on what approaches will work best. “We need to prevent young people from ever getting involved in this revolving door of juvenile justice involvement,” Kim said, “and set them up on a positive trajectory.” t
This year, the program launched a we really developing interventions new course focused on grantwriting, that respond to the full population with a specific emphasis on seeking of men who have sex with men, or dissertation funding from the are they only focused on men who National Institutes of Health. happen to go to bars?” For Gibbs, who is receiving Advances in technology during approximately $107,000 from the the past decade now mean that National Institute on Drug Abuse, many of these individuals no longer the funding support will enable need to visit those types of venues him to test a new strategy that may to interact with peers, particularly improve the ability of researchers to with the advent of social networking recruit young adults who identify as applications like Grindr that allow sexual minorities to participate in individuals to connect based on georesearch studies. graphic proximity. Gibbs is testing a new method of recruitment that relies on these apps to identify and invite potential study participants. His working hypothesis is that the strategy will result in a different, perhaps more representative sample of young men who have sex with men than venue-based sampling. He will also test the cost effectiveness and recruitment efficiency of the new approach. Although he has already started the project with a small pilot grant from the Behavior, Health, and Society research cluster at the USC School of Social Work, the federal award will enable him to purchase hardware, hire student workers for “The goal is to set our project support provide participant incentives and develop a panel of doctoral students on a experts to advise him during the trajectory that is based two-year funding period. in rigorous scientific Similarly, Brimhall’s dissertaresearch.” tion research is already underway thanks to support from the school’s Michalle Mor Barak Management, Organizations and Policy Transformation cluster. A grant from the Agency for In particular, he is interested in Healthcare Research and Quality exploring causes of mental health will allow her to extend the study disparities and substance abuse and collect much more data. among lesbian, gay, bisexual and “It’s a huge deal to get the funding, transgender (LGBT) young adults. because it means my ideas can be However, previous studies that have marketable and potentially valuable examined these issues among young to others,” she said. “I also wanted men who have sex with men, for this study to be longitudinal and I example, primarily relied on samples wanted to do qualitative interviews, recruited from gay venues. but I had no money for participant “If you are interested in studying incentives. If I didn’t get this funding, substance use in a population and I wouldn’t have been able to collect the places you are going to recruit any more data.” them are gay bars, it suggests that Her project delves maybe you are dealing with a sample into issues of diverthat is fairly biased,” Gibbs said. “Are sity and inclusion
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Efforts by school leaders to encourage PhD students to apply for and secure federal dissertation grants are paying off, as evidenced by the success of Kate Sullivan, Jeremy Gibbs, Kim Brimhall and Robin Petering (left to right)
Photo/Eric Lindberg
Funding | from page 1 As Kim Brimhall, Jeremy Gibbs, Robin Petering and Kate Sullivan assemble the final product of their doctoral careers, grants from federal agencies will help them collect and analyze data, offer participant incentives and purchase study materials, among other expenses. Beyond their cash value, however, the awards carry a broader meaning. “It does say a lot about the direction that the USC School of Social Work is moving in,” Gibbs said. “Having four students get great scores and funding shows our school is becoming really competitive, not just as a social work school, but as a school of social and health research. “It not only means we are able to do cutting-edge research, but it also means our students are graduating and have the potential to go to schools that are very competitive and well respected.” That has been Mor Barak’s vision since she took the helm of the doctoral program seven years ago. She instituted a three-pronged approach to promoting a culture of rigorous research, starting with what she termed as socialization into the professoriate. “From day one, our students are part of the faculty in many ways, part of the research core of the school,” she said. Students are immersed in the school’s research clusters, a stimulating environment in which they interact with research-active faculty members, postdoctoral scholars and peers. This helps them transition from students to researchers and scientists, Mor Barak said, an identity formation process that constitutes the second element of their preparation to be independent scholars. Finally, the school fosters an intellectual community by holding seminars and creating teams of mentors to guide doctoral students through their coursework and dissertation work. “The goal is to set our doctoral students on a trajectory that is based in rigorous scientific research,” Mor Barak said.
Photo/Courtesy of Michalle Mor Barak
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among staff members in a particular department at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She is conducting surveys with frontline employees, supervisors and administrators to determine whether inclusive leadership can lead to increased job satisfaction, innovation and improved quality of care. Although these concepts of inclusion and transformational leadership have been anecdotally linked with improved morale, performance and commitment, Brimhall said little empirical research has been conducted on the topic, particularly in the strongly hierarchical context of the hospital environment. “Nobody really knows what inclusive leadership means,” she said. Because she has additional funding to conduct in-depth interviews with participants rather than relying solely on quantitative surveys, Brimhall is gaining a deeper perspective on inclusion that has shifted her own views on the subject. “As I’ve done my interviews, I’ve learned that the story I would have told with my quantitative numbers would be very different than the
“Having four students get great scores and funding shows our school is becoming really competitive, not just as a social work school but as a school of social and health research.” Jeremy Gibbs story I’m going to tell now,” she said. “It’s really opened my eyes to things I’m missing, things I’m not analyzing in my surveys. It will likely influence how I shape my career.” She credited the school’s emphasis on preparing its doctoral students to apply for federal grants for her success in securing a dissertation award, particularly a series of presentations from former PhD students and staff members at the school’s organized research unit, the Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services. “That helped give me a very realistic view of the process,” Brimhall said. “I don’t think it would have
been awarded without this large team helping me.” Support from the school also helped Petering polish a grant proposal that received a perfect score on its second submission. After hovering in bureaucratic limbo following unexpected changes in funding priorities related to HIV/AIDS research, the award money recently came through. In addition to a rigorous mock review led by the Homelessness, Housing, and Social Environment research cluster, Petering received guidance from numerous faculty members and consultants as she developed her proposal. “They provide so much support,” she said. “I feel they are invested in training me to become an independent scholar, and they really treat me as a peer. I haven’t heard of people in other programs that have received as much support as this.” Her dissertation focuses on homeless youths who are involved or affiliated with gangs, a subpopulation that has received little attention from researchers despite significantly Grants | continued on page 12
Photo/Eric Lindberg
“I don’t know anyone else who has submitted an NIH grant like this outside our program. I feel really prepared to write any kind of grant going forward.” Robin Petering Grants | from page 11 higher rates of gang involvement among homeless adolescents and young adults. In the general population, an estimated 8 percent of youths are gang members and 33 percent are considered gang affiliates, whereas those figures are closer to 17 percent and 56 percent, respectively, in the homeless population. “We know homeless youths and those who are gang involved are at high risk of a lot of negative outcomes,” Petering said. “Knowing these are two extremely at-risk and marginalized populations, what does this intersection mean?” Her research examines how social networks and connections to gang-involved peers relate to risk behaviors, including depression, suicidal ideation, posttraumatic stress disorder, heavy drug use and sexual risk. She is also interested in protective factors that promote resilience in the face of these negative consequences. With her federal funding now officially
approved, Petering will be able to complete more in-depth interviews with homeless youths and present her results at conferences, in addition to attending workshops and classes to build her research skills. “Just the experience of writing the proposal, revising it, and submitting it sets me up to move forward as a junior faculty member,” she said. “I definitely want to continue pursuing this research and building myself up as an independent scholar.” Sullivan is also working toward an independent research career after netting a oneyear grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She is gaining rare access to administrative data from the U.S. Army to complete her dissertation, a benefit of being associated with the school’s Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families (CIR). “I’m interested in how families cope with the risk factors they face as part of military deployment and larger stressors that military families deal with,” she said. Pairing data gleaned from a reintegration and resilience training program completed by all Army service members with information on deployment history, medical records, relocations and other familyrelated factors will allow her to consider how military life affects the spouses and children of service members. Sullivan received a perfect score on her proposal, an outcome she credited to the support of faculty members who conducted an internal review before she submitted the application. In addition to acknowledging the help of Carl Castro, CIR’s director, she recognized Associate Professor Michael Hurlburt for his one-on-one tutoring during the process. “He was incredibly instrumental in shaping the proposal I submitted,” she said. “He wanted us to reach out to faculty members we normally wouldn’t have contact with to get their feedback.” As part of her dissertation, Sullivan developed a training plan and formed partnerships with scholars outside of the USC School of Social Work, including a faculty member in the USC Department of Psychology and a senior researcher at UCLA, a network she plans to draw on in the future as she launches her career. t
Photo/Brian Goodman
Hamovitch Center | 1149 South Hill Street, Suite 360 | Los Angeles, CA 90015 USC School of Social Work | Montgomery Ross Fisher Building | 669 West 34th Street | Los Angeles, CA 90089 213.821.3628 | hrc@usc.edu | usc.edu/socialwork/research
Book | from page 9 mistakes of U.S. businesses, Maiden noted. When supportive programs for employees first appeared in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, they typically focused only on substance abuse problems and were informally overseen by recovering alcohol or drug addicts as part of their recovery process. It wasn’t until the 1970s that occupational social workers recognized the emerging area of practice and introduced a broader focus on work and family well-being. “Overseas companies came into the picture when the field had already been professionalized,” Maiden said. “As they emerged and matured, they had a more holistic approach, they were much more work and life focused and they were more focused on health and wellness.” Illustrating the diverse array of global approaches to EAPs, the book features articles on topics ranging from employee support programs for indigenous populations within nations, evaluation of employee counseling services in the Chinese workplace and substance abuse intervention at a large Russian manufacturing worksite. Maiden said this broad cross-section of how the EAP model is being deployed in different cultures and work settings should prove valuable to students, employers and professionals interested in workplace behavioral health and wellbeing from a global perspective. The book is coedited by David Sharar, managing director of domestic and international EAP provider Chestnut Global Partners, and available from Routledge. t