Joshua Rusow’s (he/him) research primarily focuses on the health and wellbeing of sexual and gender minority youth and young adults—understanding how experiences of stigma and discrimination are associated with relationships, behavior, and mental, physical, and sexual health. His doctoral research highlighted the occurrence of teen dating violence and sexual assault among sexual minority adolescents in different contexts throughout the United States. That work employed longitudinal modeling to identify correlates before and after physical and sexual violence experiences to understand the mechanisms that may contribute to the well-established relationship violence and health disparities observed in sexual minority adolescent populations.
His emerging research focuses on 1) how sexual minority adolescents learn about romantic relationships; 2) how they think about relationships that involve violence; and 3) how experiences of violence (both in and outside of romantic relationships) impact LGBTQ+ youth health. Joshua collaborates with colleagues at Friends Research Institute and San Diego State University on a clinical trial of technology use to build peer relationships in preventing HIV, promote PrEP uptake, and reduce gender-based stigma among gender minority youth and young adults.
Prior to joining the Brown School, Rusow completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Research on Children, Youth and Families at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Dalychia Saah is a sexuality educator, writer, and speaker who facilitates space for people to connect more deeply with their desires for their body, relationships, life and the world. She is passionate about helping people unlearn oppressive norms that keep them from moving toward a more liberated way of being.
Saah is the co-founder of Afrosexology, a pleasure-based sex education platform that creates educational content and workshops to center the pleasure, empowerment, and liberation of Black people. Through Afrosexology, she has created space for people of color to reclaim their sexuality and body agency.
Saah teaches courses on social theory, social justice, and sexuality education. She is also a sought-after facilitator and keynote speaker for conferences and events related to social justice and/or sexuality. Her work and words have been featured in HuffPost, Teen Vogue, Allure Magazine, Vibe Magazine, Glamour Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Playboy Magazine, Broadly, and others. Saah has received the Phenomenal Woman Award, Spirit of Social Work Award, Reverend Robert Gilbert Advocacy Award, and the Academy for Leadership & Civic Engagement Leadership Award.
Margaret Sherraden’s scholarship focuses on household and community development. A leader in financial capability and asset building, she has published five books and numerous articles on advancing economic well-being. She led one of the 12 Grand Challenges in Social Work Initiative papers on Financial Capability and Asset Building for All. Sherraden is a faculty director at the Brown School’s Center for Social Development.
Sherraden is currently completing a book for social workers and other human service students on building financial capability and asset building in low-income households. Her prior research includes studies of international volunteering and service, microenterprise, and immigrant birth outcomes among Mexican-American women.
In addition, at the University of Missouri-St.Louis, Sherraden is Founders Professor of Social Work. She has taught for 25 years in the UMSL School of Social Work, where she also chaired the master’s program in social work. She is a former Fulbright Fellow and two-term president of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare. She serves on the St. Louis Federal Reserve’s Community Development Advisory Council.
Michael Sherraden is the founding director of the Center for Social Development at the Brown School. Working with colleagues at CSD and many partners, Sherraden creates and tests innovations to improve social and economic well-being.
He has defined and informed a growing body of applied research and policy to promote inclusion in asset building. This work has influenced asset-based policies and programs in the U.S. and many other countries. His research results have also informed inclusive and progressive child development accounts (CDAs) in St. Louis, other U.S. cities and states, and internationally. In addition, Sherraden’s research on Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s contributed to the creation of AmeriCorps, and he was in attendance for the signing of the bill at the White House.
Sherraden was elected to the inaugural class of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, served on the board, and has provided leadership in the national initiative Grand Challenges in Social Work. Among other awards, he has been a Fulbright Scholar and listed by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Sherraden’s teaching currently focuses on social policy, social innovation, and effective strategies in applied social science.
Jewel D. Stafford serves as the Assistant Dean of Practicum Engaged Scholarship and Teaching Professor at the Brown School at Washington University. She is Co-Director of Policy Education and Practice at the Center for Social Development and as the director of the Racial Equity Fellowship Program in the Office of Field Education. She has more than 15 years of practice and research experience working with diverse communities. Her career has focused on training, community-based research, and program planning. Stafford has managed and implemented community-based initiatives that address racial inequities, promote partnerships and improve health outcomes. Her research agenda focuses on examining racial/ethnic health disparities among medically underserved communities, specifically black populations. Current research explores reproductive health, racial equity, and community-engaged research, and she serves on the Board of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers. Before joining the Brown School, she was a research coordinator on NIH-funded grants, administering multiple community-based public health research projects and collaborating with community leaders and researchers to develop culturally appropriate evaluation tools.
Vetta Sanders Thompson’s research focuses on the health and well-being of diverse communities, particularly the African-American community. Her scholarship addresses racial identity and socialization, implications of experiences of discrimination and socio-cultural determinants of disparities. Her goal is to empower members of the community to improve their health and well-being through education and opportunities for action. Her funded research addresses promotion of cancer screening among African Americans and community engagement.
Sanders Thompson currently leads the School’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, as well as co-directs the Center for Community Health Partnership and Research at the Institute for Public Health at Washington University. She is also is an associate member of the Siteman Cancer Center and a faculty affiliate of the Department of African and African-American Studies. She teaches courses in human diversity, disparities and mental health.
A licensed clinical psychologist, Sanders Thompson is active in professional associations. She served as an associate editor for the APA journal PsycCritiques, a past Chair of the State Committee of Psychologist, past President of the Missouri Psychological Association and has been honored by the St. Louis community, as well as her peers in the profession.