Our affiliated research centers and institutes enable us to dive deep into complex issues.

Sheretta T. Butler-Barnes, Director

Dean’s Distinguished Professorial Scholar, Professor

The Black Families, Racism, and Resilience (BFRR) Lab addresses how culturally strength-based assets can support Black children, youth, and families. Our lab studies how attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors change over time. Understanding development through a cultural-ecological lens helps educators, practitioners, and scholars to understand how policies, laws, and day-to-day interactions shape attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of Black Americans. Inequitable experiences will affect how Black Americans view themselves and perceive the world depending on their social positioning, which includes race, ethnicity, gender, social class, and sexual orientation. Our purpose is to empower Black American communities with culturally responsive and empowering solutions.

Elvin Geng, Director

Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine

Byron J. Powell, Co-Director

Associate Professor

The Center for Dissemination and Implementation at the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis promotes the adoption of proven treatments, programs and strategies for routine practice.

Barry Rosenberg, Director

Professor of Practice

Founded in 2020, The Center for Human Service Leadership (CHSL), supported by Washington University and the Missouri Foundation for Health was created to help implement the Delmar Divine vision and strengthen the nonprofit organizations that have made Delmar Divine their home.

Melissa Jonson-Reid, Director

Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work Research

Founded in 2018, the Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy, Research and Training is dedicated to advancing science to prevent child maltreatment and, when prevention is not possible, to effectively intervene to promote healthy outcomes. It is grounded in the idea that research, practice and training efforts must be related and of equal importance to assure that policy and practice are informed by the latest science.

The Center will attend to the most pressing needs of the field and employ collaborative real-world approaches in its science. Two of its large research projects focus on testing innovative means of improving maltreatment screening capacity through advancing the use of integrated administrative data to inform child welfare and cross-system response; as well as improving the science around screening newborns for risk of maltreatment and engagement of new parents in services.

Leopoldo Cabassa, Co-Director

Professor

Byron Powell, Co-Director

Associate Professor

Founded in 1993, the Center for Mental Health Services Research (CMHSR), through its national network of research partners, works with social service and mental health agencies to build a base of evidence to address the challenges of delivering mental health services to vulnerable populations. CMHSR was the nation’s first Social Work Research Development Center, and is home to two NIMH-funded training programs.

Michael Sherraden, Director

George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor

Founded in 1994, the Center for Social Development (CSD) undertakes domestic and international research testing social innovations and uses evidence to inform policy and practice. The center is well known for innovations in asset building for family security and development. Many other initiatives are underway in the following areas: Financial Inclusion; Civic Engagement and Service; Thriving Communities; Child and Youth Development; Social Justice, Environment and Social Development; and Race, Inequality and Social Mobility.

Tonya E. Edmond, Director

Professor, Brown School

Lindsay Stark, Co-Director

Professor

Founded in 2009, the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention (CVIP) promotes healthy young families and healthy young adults by advancing evidence-based, real-world strategies to prevent child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual violence and suicide attempts. CVIP is the only center of its kind to be housed in a school of social work.

Gary Parker, Director

Associate Dean for External Affairs

Founded in 2017, the Clark-Fox Policy Institute aims to advance social and economic justice through practitioner training and working collaboratively to develop evidence-informed policy that bridges the gap between researchers and impacted populations by aligning scientific research with lived experience.

Hannah Allee, Interim Director

Founded in 2015, the Evaluation Center is committed to helping organizations understand their work and why it matters. The center specializes in client-driven evaluation and training for non-profit organizations, funders, universities and government agencies, to help determine whether organizational goals and program outcomes are being achieved.

Mitra Naseh, Director

Assistant Professor

Founded in 2020, the Forced Migration Initiative aims to lead and coordinate social work and social welfare research, education, and training to improve the quality of life and well-being for internationally forcibly displaced people. The Initiative for Social Work and Forced Migration serves as a virtual hub for social work scholars in international forced migration. The initiative aims to develop certificate programs that recognize scholars and service providers who adhere to the initiative’s standards. Moreover, the initiative will participate in international student exchange programs, attract interested graduate students, and convene conferences. Furthermore, the initiative will participate in open-source data collection and sharing in forced migration studies.

Nancy Morrow-Howell, Co-Director

Betty Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy

Brian D. Carpenter, Co-Director

Founded in 1998, the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging works to advance a global society where people of all ages have maximum opportunity for health, security and engagement. The global population ages 65 and older is growing faster than all other age groups. Affecting nearly all sectors of society, population aging is one of the most significant social transformations of the twenty-first century. We expand education on issues relevant to individual and population aging; engage a diverse network of researchers in dialogue, lectures, learning groups and funding collaborations; and we are committed to supporting aging initiatives throughout St. Louis and Around the World.

Enola Proctor, Director

Research Professor

The Implementation Research Institute (IRI) was established to advance the field of implementation science in mental health by enhancing the career development of early to mid-career investigators.

Fred M. Ssewamala, Director

William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor

Proscovia Nabunya, Co-Director

Assistant Professor

Ozge Sensoy Bahar, Co-Director

Research Associate Professor

Founded in 2013, the International Center for Child Health and Development (ICHAD)’s mission is to contribute to the reduction of poverty and the improvement of health and overall developmental outcomes for youth and families in low-resource communities, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa.

Pamela Begay, Director

Associate Professor of Practice

Founded in 1990, the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies promotes preparation of professionals to assume leadership positions in social services and governmental institutions dedicated to improving the lives of American Indians.

Jeremy Goldbach, Director

Masters & Johnson Distinguished Professor in Sexual Health and Education

Established in June 2022, the Sexuality, Health, and Gender (SHAG) Center includes contingents of staff, students, and postdoctoral researchers, as well as tenure line, research, clinical and teaching faculty focused on the integration of sexuality into research, education and training.

Fred M. Ssewamala, Co-Director

William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor

Mary McKay, Co-Director

Executive Vice Provost

Founded in 2016, the SMART Africa Center (Strengthening Mental Health and Research Training) is a transdisciplinary collaborative center aimed at reducing gaps in child mental health services and research in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the SMART Africa Center utilizes a population approach to child mental health.

The center brings together a consortium of academic, government, NGO and community stakeholders in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and the United States to focus on addressing the child mental health burden and service gaps in sub-Saharan Africa, including implementation and scale-up of evidence-based practices.

Ellis Ballard, Director

Assistant Professor of Practice

Founded in 2009, the Social System Design Lab (SSDL) advances the science and application of system dynamics in organizations and communities. The SSDL specializes in developing participatory methods and workshops for engaging communities and organizations to design innovative solutions in complex social systems using causal maps and formal models with computer simulation.