March 2021 Newsletter

 
 

Fellow Spotlight: Kelley Fong

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Kelley Fong is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Georgia Tech, where she studies social inequality and family life, with particular attention to families’ encounters with state systems like Child Protective Services. Her work aims to center parents’ perspectives to bring their insights into scholarship, policy, and practice. Kelley has interviewed and spent time with hundreds of parents in Boston, Providence, San Francisco, Dallas, New Haven, and small-town/rural Connecticut to learn about their experiences with social services, child welfare, schools, housing, and neighborhoods.

Kelley is currently working on a book manuscript examining how – and to what effect – U.S. child protection authorities come to investigate millions of families, disproportionately families marginalized by race and class, each year. The book identifies limitations and costs of our racialized and gendered response to family adversity. For example, it demonstrates how channeling families facing adversity to an entity organized around child maltreatment and empowered to separate families ultimately perpetuates marginality and social exclusion. This work builds on her prior research, including a recent article in the American Sociological Review, summarized in a research brief and op-ed, on the reach of CPS investigations, as well as another paper in Social Forces on how low-income mothers’ fears about CPS reporting suppress help-seeking and institutional engagement.

Kelley first learned of the Doris Duke Fellowships before graduate school and eagerly anticipated the day she could apply. “For me, the Doris Duke Fellowship has been transformational,” Kelley says. “Most practically, I had the rare opportunity to conduct research shadowing CPS investigators, and the financial support provided by the fellowship made that research possible. More broadly, the fellowship complemented my disciplinary, graduate training through its explicit focus on translating interdisciplinary research into policy and practice aimed at promoting child well-being – my goal in pursuing a doctoral degree in the first place. The fellowship has expanded my knowledge and network, introducing me to new ideas and collaborations that will stay with me throughout my career.”

 

Doris Duke Fellow, Clinton Boyd, Jr., and First Lady Michelle Obama to Speak at Start Early’s Virtual Annual Luncheon

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For the past several years, Start Early (formerly the Ounce of Prevention Fund) has sponsored an Annual Luncheon to promote investment by all in early childhood programs and policies, and to share inspiring stories that speak to the power of starting early. Given COVID-19 restrictions, this year’s event will be virtual and available to all on Thursday, April 22 from 12-12:45pm CST.  Featured speakers include Doris Duke Fellow, Clinton Boyd, Jr., and the former First Lady, Michelle Obama! Register here. 

 

Doris Duke Fellow, Megan Finno-Velasquez, Featured in Harvard Political Review

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Megan Finno-Velasquez was recently interviewed by the Harvard Political Review on her work regarding the realities of immigration, foster care, and congregate shelters in the United States. She explains that though there are clear expectations and standards of care, the enforcement of these standards fall short with inadequacies in connections to services or general follow-up for children. She and other colleagues advocate for immigrant child welfare reform by bringing the needs of children and families to the forefront.

 

Fellows Updates:

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Tova Walsh has two updates:

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Kaela Byers and her colleague from the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare recently received a four-year evaluation contract from the Missouri Children’s Trust Fund to evaluate the impact of program investments targeting the reduction and prevention of child sexual abuse in communities throughout the state. The overall goal of the evaluation is to examine changes in rates of child sexual abuse in the funded communities. The evaluation seeks to understand how the interventions were implemented and the extent to which the interventions achieved intended outcomes.

 
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Barbara Chaiyachati and Meredith Matone were awarded a Department of Pediatrics Chairs Initiative within the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to start a clinic track to provide dedicated medical care to infants who are born substance exposed. The initiative is designed to deliver integrated care to decrease risk and optimize outcomes by utilizing best practices for serving this population.

 
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Debby Moon has two updates:

 
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Lindsay Huffhines has two new publications:

 
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Elizabeth McGuier has two updates:

 
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Byron Powell and Gracelyn Cruden and Doris Duke Fellowships mentor Larry Palinkas co-authored an article in Implementation Research and Practice reviewing the use of ethnographic approaches in implementation research.

 

Byron Powell has two new publications:

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