Welcome!
2021 marks the 32nd anniversary of the Gamble-Skogmo Chair in Child Welfare and Youth Policy! Our research portfolio encompasses a variety of diverse topics including children’s disability and stigmatization, racial disparities in out-of-school suspensions, the involvement of maltreated children in the criminal justice system (“crossover youth”), Indigenous child welfare, and moral injury in youth, parents, and professionals involved in the child welfare system.
Although the specific topics we explore are diverse, you’ll also notice some common themes. First, our research topics reflect our broad commitment to engaging with community partners to conduct research that can strengthen practice and policy with vulnerable children and families. Many of our specific topics reflect the information needs of these partners. Every year, we publish research in peer-reviewed journals, and then turn that research into products for child welfare professionals such as online continuing education modules, videos, blogs and practice notes. Second, you’ll notice that we use ethnographic and mixed methods to explore many of our diverse topics. These methods reflect our commitment to producing child welfare research that is both developmentally and culturally-sensitive and has depth as well as breadth.
In addition to conducting research, I have focused on mentoring the next generation of child welfare scholars. Each year, I am able through the endowment and other funds to support several Ph.D. and MSW graduate research assistants. We conduct a Gamble-Skogmo research team meeting every other week where we discuss our research agenda, progress, goals and challenges. I also meet weekly with students, individually or in small research groups to discuss questions, problem solve and code data, as appropriate.
We welcome new collaborations, so please let us know about your own research interests and refer any of your own master’s students to the Ph.D. program at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus.
Sincerely,
Wendy Haight, PhD
Professor and Gamble-Skogmo Chair in Child Welfare and Youth Policy