Minnesota Child Welfare Research Collaborative (MCWRC)

Where We Work

• MN Department of Health – Center on Health Statistics
• Ramsey County Department of Community Corrections- Juvenile Division
• MN Department of Education
• MN Department of Public Safety
• Hennepin County Department of Community Corrections and Rehabilitation (DOCCR): Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation

at the University of MN:

• Program in Health
• Disparities Research
• Institute on Race and Poverty
• Div. of Epidemiology and Community Health
• Census Data Research Center
• Dept. of Sociology
• Center for Early Education and Development
• Children, Youth, and Family Consortium (CYFC)
• Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare

Who We Are:

Mary Hearst, is a Research Associate and Instructor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, Children, Youth and Family Consortium Scholar, and co-Director of the Minnesota Child Welfare Research Collaborative. Dr. Hearst’s research is focused on family and community based childhood obesity prevention and health and education disparities, particularly among low-income, multi-ethnic communities. In particular, she is interested in the mechanism by which social, political and economic factors impact health and well being. She has taught in person and on-line graduate level courses at the University of St. Catherine and the University of Minnesota.
Website: http://www.sph.umn.edu/epi/
Contact: hearst@umn.edu

Jennifer Schuster Jaeger & Julie A Rud
The Department of Community Corrections and Rehabilitation (DOCCR) operates three correctional facilities (the Adult Corrections Facility, the Juvenile Detention center and the County Home School), and provides adult and juvenile probation and supervised release services.  The Mission of DOCCR is Community Safety, Community Restoration and Reduced Risk of Re-offense. The Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation provides analytical support to DOCCR divisions to achieve the goal of using data to drive decisions.
Note: Julie is manager of the Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation in Hennepin County’s Department of Community Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Key words: corrections, probation, parole, recidivism, EBP, evidence-based, juvenile, offender.

Website: http://www.hennepin.us/portal/site/HennepinUS/menuitem.b1ab75471750…
Contact: jennifer.schuster-yaeger@co.hennepin.mn.us  and  julie.a.rud@hennepin.co.mn.us 
Data Sources

Cathy Jordan
Dr. Cathy Jordan, Pediatric Neuropsychologist by training, is Director of the Children, Youth, and Family Consortium (CYFC) and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. Cathy leads CYFC’s efforts to address educational and health disparities through policy education, the generation, dissemination and application of research, and programmatic partnerships. Cathy’s own research program has focused on developmental neurotoxicology and her efforts concentrated on two large, longitudinal Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) projects beginning in the 1990’s. Through these projects she became intensely interested in models of research that aim to address community-defined needs and contribute to social and political change yet enhance scientific methodology and contribute valid information to our knowledge base. Cathy’s CBPR experiences and interest in creating institutional support for community engagement at her University led to her involvement in Community-campus Partnerships for Health’s FIPSE-funded project, the Community-engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative. She chaired the Collaborative’s Peer Review Work Group, which produced a package of materials intended to assist engaged faculty in documenting their engaged scholarship and assist promotion and tenure committee members in recognizing rigorous engaged scholarship in dossiers. She was co-director of CCPH’s second FIPSE funded project, Faculty for the Engaged Campus. As part of Faculty for the Engaged Campus, she is the founding editor of www.CES4Health.info, a mechanism for the rigorous peer review and online publication of innovative products of community-engaged scholarship that are in forms other than journal manuscripts.
Keywords: community engagement, public engagement, community-engaged scholarship, CBPR, community-based participatory research, peer review, promotion and tenure, lead poisoning, neurotoxicology, health disparities, educational disparities
Website: www.cyfc.umn.edu
Contact info:  jorda003@umn.edu   612-625-7591

Anita Larson
Anita Larson currently works for Ramsey’s Public Health Department as a planning and evaluation analyst. Anita has an interest in all areas of research related to human capital including intervention and prevention programs and policies, with a particular focus on the use of administrative data to support research. Previously, Anita coordinated a project at the University of Minnesota that used statewide data on children and families to explore well being and the outcomes of specific sub-populations. Conducting good program and policy analysis includes making findings accessible to the public and policymakers and Anita also has a scholarly interest in identifying the most effective communicating strategies agencies might use to inform their stakeholders and constituents of program performance.
Keywords: juvenile justice, prevention, intervention, secondary data use
Website: http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/ph 
Contact: anita.larson@co.ramsey.mn.us 

J. Michael Oakes
Michael Oakes is an Associate Professor  in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, Co-Director in the US Census Data Research Center, and Director of the Social Epidemiology Workgroup. One major research interest is the impact of social systems on health outcomes. Dr. Oakes is conducting several studies within this broad program and refining methodologies for the same.
Research Interests: Quantitative Methods, Social Epidemiology, Research Ethics
Website: http://www.sph.umn.edu/faculty/oakes007/
Contact: oakes007@umn.edu 

Peter Rode
Peter Rode is a research scientist in the Center for Health Statistics at the Minnesota Department of Health. He works primarily on large population-based health surveys, including the Minnesota Student Survey, Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey, and Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey. The Student Survey in particular may be useful to anyone interested in adolescent health and well being. His research interests lately have been analysis of these datasets by racial-ethnic groups and socio-economic status, and the correlations or clustering that occur among risk behaviors and protective factors. 
Website: http://www.health.state.mn.us
Contact: peter.rode@state.mn.us 
Data Sources

Dr. Rhonda Jones-Webb 
Rhonda Jones-Webb is an Associate Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota. She is a member of the Alcohol Epidemiology Program, the University of Minnesota Cancer Center, and the Health Disparities Work Group.
Research Interests: Alcohol epidemiology and policy with a special emphasis on race and social class issues, policy as a prevention strategy, minority health issues
Websites: http://www.sph.umn.edu/faculty/jones010/
Contact: jones010@umn.edu 

Dr. Toben Nelson
Toben Nelson is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota. He is a member of the Alcohol Epidemiology Program.
Research Interests: Health policy, organizational change, health behavior during developmental transitions, influence of sports participation on health, social determinants of health, program evaluation, prevention of alcohol-attributable harm, physical activity promotion, obesity prevention, motor vehicle safety.
Websites: http://www.sph.umn.edu/faculty/tfnelson/
Contact: tfnelson@umn.edu 

Sonya Brady
Sonya Brady is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota.
Research Interests: Health risk behavior during adolescence and young adulthood; developmental influences on risk taking; Socioeconomic and ethnic disparities in consequences of risk taking; Mechanisms linking stressful life circumstances to health risk behavior and factors promoting resilience; Promotion of health protective behavior; Public policies affecting adolescent health.
Website: http://www.sph.umn.edu/faculty/ssbrady/
Contact: ssbrady@umn.edu 

Tom Luce
Tom Luce is the Director of Research at the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. His research focus is economic development and fiscal issues in metropolitan areas in the U.S.
Website: http://www.irpumn.org
Contact: tluce@umn.edu 

Timothy B. Zuel
Tim has worked for 20 years in public child welfare including both child protection and children’s mental health. His area of research includes; Child maltreatment and connections to future delinquency, early school absenteeism, minority communities school engagement, and public policy issues on child welfare interventions.
Websites:  http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ssw/cascw/ 
Contact: tzuel@umn.edu 

Susan Everson-Rose
Dr. Susan Everson-Rose is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and Associate Director of the Program in Health Disparities Research at the University of Minnesota.
Her primary research program is focused on studying the roles of stress, negative emotions and socioeconomic factors in the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and diabetes, and the bio-behavioral and physiologic mechanisms underlying these associations. 
Website: http://www.med.umn.edu/gim/faculty/eversons/home.html 
Contact: saer@umn.edu 

Allison Anfinson
Ali Anfinson works at the Minnesota Department of Education as a Results Measurement Director.
Website: http://education.state.mn.us 
Contact: allison.anfinson@state.mn.us 

Danette Buskovick
Danette Buskovick is a Researcher with the Department of Public Safety, Office of Justice Programs.
Website: https://dps.mn.gov/ 
Contact: Danette.Buskovick@state.mn.us