Traci LaLiberte, Ph.D., MSW
Traci LaLiberte, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare in the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota. Her work is focused on child welfare practice and policy with special interest in comprehensive family assessment, system change, permanency for children in out of home care, and work with children and parents who have disabilities. She has served as principal investigator on studies of comprehensive assessment, evidence-based practice in treatment foster care settings, child welfare leadership, and the intersection of child welfare and disability.
Priscilla Gibson, Ph.D., LICSW
Priscilla Gibson, Ph.D., is a professor in the School of Social Work and a 2020 Fulbright Scholar in Namibia. She teaches courses on social work direct practice methods and social justice and has developed and implemented interdisciplinary seminars for Title IV-E Fellows to increase their knowledge and skills in working with African American families in Child Protection Systems. She conducts research on intergenerational caregiving and is exploring the experiences of out-of-school suspensions for African American youth, their parents and educators, widows’ property rights in Ghana and intergenerational caregiving by younger generations in Namibia.
Kristine N. Piescher, Ph.D.
Kristine N. Piescher, Ph.D., holds a doctoral degree from the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Piescher serves as the Director for Research and Evaluation at the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) where she manages a number of large-scale and locally-based research and evaluation projects including the Minn-LInK project. Dr. Piescher’s research focuses on child maltreatment and out-of-home care, child well-being and educational success and stability for at-risk youth, child welfare workforce development and system change, housing and homelessness, and utilizing cross-systems data for research and evaluation.