CHWL Team

TEAM

DIRECTOR

Joyce Y. Lee, PhD, MS, MSW, LCSW

Dr. Lee is an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University College of Social Work, where she is the Director of the Child and Family Wellbeing Laboratory. Dr. Lee identifies as a child welfare and family strengthening scholar. She aims to promote child welfare and family strengthening through preventing child maltreatment, supporting positive parenting, and promoting the health of children in foster care. Her current research projects focus on:

Examining factors and mechanisms linked with child abuse and neglect risk in families with low income or other adverse family contexts;
Fostering positive father involvement and engagement in child welfare populations; and
Promoting the physical health of children and youth in foster care.

Her work is intended to inform child welfare policies and practices to improve children’s health outcomes and strengthen children’s relationships with their family members. In her research, Dr. Lee draws on family and developmental theories and uses advanced quantitative and data science tools, as well as qualitative methodology. She was a recipient of the Family Strengthening Scholar’s Grant from the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, United States Department of Health and Human Services. Most recently, she received the Building a Multidisciplinary Pipeline of Researchers in Child Abuse and Neglect: Summer Training Institute for Early Career or Transitioning Scholars Trainee Award, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Dr. Lee received her BASW from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, MSW from Columbia University, and MS and joint PhD in Social Work and Psychology from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Dr. Lee also has a courtesy appointment at The Ohio State University Department of Psychology and is a faculty affiliate at the Institute for Population Research.

MEMBERS

Yujeong Chang, LLMSW

Yujeong is a first-year doctoral student at the Ohio State University College of Social Work. She received her Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan. Post-MSW graduation, she served as a project manager at the University of Michigan School of Social Work on research projects pertaining to child maltreatment prevention and trauma-informed programs and practices for K-12 schools as well as serving as a lab assistant for the Department of Psychology conducting clinical interviews. Her research interest focuses on examining the complex mechanism and transactional processes of multi-level factors across the socio-ecological framework that shapes the psychopathology and resilience of children and adolescents, especially those who have gone through challenging times (e.g., child maltreatment).

Hunmin Cha, MSW

Hunmin is a doctoral student at the Ohio State University College of Social Work, focusing on child welfare research. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Regina, and Master of Social Welfare from Yonsei University. Before entering the doctoral program, she worked as a social skills facilitator at the Uiwang Rehabilitation, Treatment, and Education Center for Children with Disabilities, helping children with developmental disabilities learn social skills and adjust to school. As a master's student, she participated in several research projects on social services for children with disabilities and community childcare centers in South Korea. Her research interest is in child maltreatment and child well-being.

Amy Xu, MSW

Google Scholar
Research Gate

Amy is a PhD student in the College of Social Work. Her research interests include child and family health outcomes; child, adolescent, and young adult mental and behavioral health services; and community services for children and parents experiencing precarious employment. In the Child and Family Wellbeing Laboratory, Amy has worked on projects such as artificial intelligence in family services, father-focused texting interventions, racial disparities in healthcare utilization among youth in foster care, and Family Stress Model applications during COVID-19.

COLLABORATORS

Susan Yoon, PhD

Dr. Susan Yoon is an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University College of Social Work and Director of the THRIVE (Trauma, Health, & Resilience In the midst of Violence Exposure) Research Lab. Dr. Susan Yoon’s research seeks to promote resilience and well-being in children who have experienced childhood trauma, including child maltreatment. She is particularly interested in identifying factors, mechanisms and pathways that promote or hinder resilient development following child maltreatment. Her current research focuses on (1) an exploration of the conceptualization and measurement of the construct “resilience”; (2) investigation of the developmental pathways from child maltreatment to behavioral health outcomes in childhood and adolescence (e.g., adolescent substance use); and (3) the role of fathers in resilient development of maltreated youth. Her research has been funded by the NIH National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the U.S. Administration for Children & Families (ACF), and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). She is a recipient of the 2020 Karen Saywitz Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research in the Field of Child Maltreatment from the American Psychological Association (APA).Dr. Susan Y oon is the co-investigator in the DREAM pilot project, and her research laboratory website can be found here.

Cecilia Mengo, PhD

Dr. Mengo received her Bachelor’s in Human Geography from Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya. She completed her Masters of Social Work from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY, where she received the 2012 Outstanding Graduate Student award. Dr. Mengo has also received certificate trainings in Community Based Participatory Research from City University of New York and poverty reduction strategies from Weitz Center for Development Studies in Rehovot, Israel. Dr. Mengo earned her PhD in social work from The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). During her time at UTA, Dr. Mengo was the recipient of an award on Who’s Who among Students in American Universities and Colleges for her dedication to leadership and community engagement. Dr. Mengo’s research interest examines the persistent social problem of violence against women and its impact on women health and well-being. She also examines social and economic inequalities that keep women in the cycle of poverty. Dr. Mengo’s aim is to extend and expand her research by contributing to prevention and intervention efforts that can address the most immediate needs of women victims of violence with a goal of empowering them. Dr. Mengo is also cognizant of the importance of education as a key avenue for empowering the most marginalized individuals in our society.

Tawfiq Ammari, PhD

Tawfiq Ammari, PhD is an Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Ammari is a mixed methods researcher connecting critical theory values from Science, Technology, and Society studies (STS) with computational social science techniques to advocate for equity and progressive social change in online contexts. His work focuses on the interplay between technological and social role change. Specifically, Ammari studies how large societal shifts, such as changing norms around masculinity, are associated with online interactions and social movements. He also researches how the mass adoption of technologies like social media and emerging technologies like voice assistants affects social roles in the domestic sphere. He received his bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Jordan. He then joined the master’s program at the University of Michigan School of Information as a Fulbright scholar. Ammari continued as a Ph.D. student at UMSI supervised by Prof. Sarita Schoenebeck earning his doctorate in 2020.

Garrett Pace, PhD, MSW

Dr. Garrett Pace is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He received his PhD in Social Work and Sociology from the University of Michigan. During his doctoral education, he was a population studies trainee at the Institute for Social Research. Prior to his doctoral education, he worked as a researcher for three years at the Center for Research on Child and Family Wellbeing at Princeton University. With both a U.S. and international focus, Dr. Pace’s research examines how family processes and social policies contribute to child and family well-being. His current projects (1) investigate the correlates and consequences of family violence, (2) evaluate policies that aim to prevent violence against children, and (3) examine parent-child relationship dynamics with a focus on fathers.

ALUMNI

Hannah Steinke, BA

Hannah is an incoming Autumn 2024 doctoral student in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University. She will be graduating from Ohio State with her Master of Social Work (MSW) degree in May 2024. Hannah’s research broadly focuses on interpersonal and family violence, particularly child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, and human trafficking. Hannah is particularly interested in the neurobiological substrates of exposure to coercive control and interpersonal violence. Hannah has been a Graduate Research Assistant at OSU since April 2023. She has diverse training and experience working with survivors of childhood abuse, dysfunctional family systems, child welfare, the juvenile and family court, and families impacted by intimate partner violence (IPV).

Angelise Radney, MSW

Angelise is a doctoral student at the Ohio State University College of Social Work. She previously served as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Racial Justice in Action and Wellness Lab under Dr. Camille Quinn and is now a doctoral level graduate research assistant in the Child and Family Wellbeing Laboratory. She received her Bachelor of Science from St. John’s University, and Master of Social Work from Ohio State University. Her graduate work focused on mental health and substance misuse as she interned at a psychiatric hospital and completed training through the Opioid Workforce Expansion Program (OWEP). Her research interests include the mental health of minority communities, cultural humility, and racial health disparities with a focus on the implicit and explicit biases of healthcare providers. Angelise plans to conduct community-based research following graduation in May 2025.

Jaclyn Kirsch, PhD, MSW

Jaclyn is a former doctoral student at the Ohio State University College of Social Work. She previously served as a doctoral-level Graduate Research Assistant at the Child and Family Wellbeing Laboratory. Jaclyn received her Bachelor of Arts, Master of Social Work, and Master of Public Health all from The Ohio State University. Her graduate work focused on the intersection of mental and physical health among refugee and immigrant populations in Columbus as well as access to care among these populations. Jaclyn has worked in the greater Columbus area working with refugee populations since 2015. Her research interest includes both domestic and international work regarding refugee health, specifically access to culturally appropriate mental health services and the development of culturally tailored mental health interventions. Jaclyn continues to work as a therapist at a private practice in Columbus and graduated in May 2023. She will be starting as an assistant professor in the fall of 2023 at University of Texas-Arlington.

Sarah Presley, MSW, LSW

Sarah obtained her MSW from the Ohio State University College of Social Work, in May of 2023. She is a former MSW-level Graduate Research Assistant at the Child and Family Wellbeing Laboratory. Her own research interests focus on the intersection of social work and criminal justice, specifically incarcerated individuals with mental illnesses and the services available for this population as well as the impact of incarceration on family systems. She is currently a Community Based Therapist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, in their Behavioral Health Juvenile Justice Program, where she conducts clinical assessments and recommendation plans for community based solutions to juvenile detention in Columbus.