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The University of Louisville is a premier, metropolitan research and community-engaged institution. The
faculty at the Kent School of Social Work and Family Science exemplify this designation and conduct
research and scholarship that aims to increase equity, inclusivity, and justice, both in our local community
and globally. We are actively examining strategies to improve quality of life and well-being among
individuals, families, groups, organizations, communities, and society.
Kent School faculty are examining a variety of innovative and signicant topics including training and
provision of evidence-based mental health treatments in usual care settings; novel models of integrating
and delivering substance use and child welfare services; systems- and community-level interventions,
such as in the child welfare, education, criminal-legal, mental health, disability, intimate partner violence,
healthcare, and other social service systems; healthcare engagement to prevent and treat chronic
medical conditions; global and international social justice research; healthy aging in racially minoritized
communities; eective pedagogical strategies in social work and couple & family therapy; arts-based
health interventions; and community-empowerment and participatory action research. The Kent School’s
scholarship continues to reect our dedication to becoming anti-oppressive and anti-racist. For example, our
faculty have published on integrating anti-racist initiatives and promoting racial equity into the child welfare
system, decolonizing mental health care, establishing models for creating trauma resilient communities and
organizations, and addressing anti-Black racism through social work curriculum.
In 2022, our faculty continued to develop collaborative partnerships and obtain support from state
and federal agencies, as well as private foundations and internal university funds, to support research,
evaluation, and programming. The Kent School’s research portfolio exceeded $30 million across all funded
projects and our faculty disseminated their work in over 100 presentations and 80 publications. What is
most impressive is our faculty’s dedication to a culture of collaboration and sharing in scholarly exchanges;
over 30% of our peer reviewed publications in 2022 included internal collaborations with other Kent
School faculty members. In the past year, our Center for Family and Community Well-Being (CFCWB) has
expanded signicantly and now includes over 30 team members comprised of full or part-time sta and
student trainees. With over 60 grants and contracts, representing collaboration with 133 community partner
agencies locally and across the country, the CFCWB is advancing family and community health through the
development and dissemination of evidence-based practices, technology driven innovations, and research
to address complex social problems such as violence and trauma, poverty, injustice, and disparities in health
and mental health.
Within this directory, you will see our research highlights, faculty proles, current PhD students, and funded
projects. These projects would not be possible without the Kent School’s Research and Grants Manager,
Business Center, and research sta as well as our community partners, our students, and all those who
participate in this research. In this year’s Research Directory, we focus on why this work is so important—to
us as individuals, to the people we serve, and to the world. While there is more work to do, we are looking
forward to the challenges ahead.
Executive Summary
Sunshine Rote, PhD
Interim Director of Research
John W. Miller Jr., PhD
Dean
FACULTY PROFILES CURRENT PROJECTSPHD STUDENTS2022 HIGHLIGHTS
