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Faculty Fellow

Ram Cnaan

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Professor; Program Director, Program for Religion and Social Policy Research

Faculty Director, Goldring Reentry Initiative

About

Ram Cnaan is Professor and Director of the Program for Religion and Social Policy Research, and Faculty Director of the Goldring Reentry Initiative in the School of Social Policy & Practice. He is a world-renowned expert in studying faith-based social services and volunteerism. He carried out the first national study on the role of local religious congregations in the provision of social services as well as the first one-city census of congregations in one city (Philadelphia). Cnaan is now working on fiscally valuing the contribution of urban congregations as well as working on an edited volume on innovative nonprofit organizations and leading the Goldring Reentry Initiative to reduce ex-prisoners’ recidivism in Philadelphia. In addition, he serves on the editorial board of eleven academic journals. 

Selected Publications

Luria, G., R.A. Cnaan, and A. Boehm. In Press. “Religious attendance and volunteering: Testing national culture as a boundary condition.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Cnaan, Ram A. And Toorjo Ghose. 2017. “Doctoral Social Work Education.” Research on Social Work Practice. 

Heist, D. H., and R.A. Cnaan. 2016. “Faith-based international development work: A review.” Religions 7(3): 1-17.

Cnaan, R. A., and S. An. 2016. “Harnessing faith for improved quality of life: Government and faithbased nonprofit organizations in partnership.” Human Service Organizations Management, Leadership and Governance 40(3): 208-219.

Cnaan, R. A., and D. Kaplan Vinokur. 2014. Cases in innovative nonprofits: Organizations that make a difference. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

Faculty Fellow

Dennis Culhane

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Professor and Dana and Andrew Stone Chair in Social Policy

Co-Principal Investigator, Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy

About

Dennis Culhane is Professor and Dana and Andrew Stone Chair in Social Policy, Co-Principal Investigator of Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy. His primary area of research is homelessness and assisted housing policy. From July 2009 – June 2018 he served as Director of Research at the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. His research has contributed to efforts to address the housing and support needs of people experiencing housing emergencies and long-term homelessness and includes studies of vulnerable youth and young adults, including those transitioning from foster care, juvenile justice, and residential treatment services. 

Selected Publications

Culhane, Dennis P. 2016. “The Potential of Linked Administrative Data for Advancing Homelessness Research and Policy.” European Journal of Homelessness 10(3): 109-126. 

Culhane, Dennis, Megan Henry, Rian Watt, Lily Rosenthal, Azim Shivji, et al. 2016. “The 2016 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress: Part 1, Point in Time Estimates.”

Pleace, N. and D.P. Culhane. 2016. Better than Cure: Testing the Case for Enhancing Prevention of Single Homelessness in England. London: Crisis.

Cameron, Parsell, Maree Petersen, and Dennis P. Culhane. 2016. “Cost Offsets of Supportive Housing: Evidence for Social Work.” British Journal of Social Work 2016: 1-20.

Fantuzzo, John and Dennis P. Culhane. 2015. Actionable Intelligence: Using Integrated Data Systems to Achieve a More Effective, Efficient, and Ethical Government. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Faculty Fellow

Amy Hillier

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Associate Professor, School of Social Policy & Practice

About

Amy Hillier (she/her/hers) is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Policy & Practice. She currently teaches introductory-level GIS (mapping) courses for SP2 and Urban Studies program and chairs the MSW racism course sequence. Her doctoral and post-doctoral research focused on historical mortgage redlining. For more than a decade, her research focused on links between the built environment and public health. During that time, her primary faculty position was with the Department of City & Regional Planning in the Weitzman School of Design. She moved to SP2 in 2017 in order to pursue new research interests relating to LGBTQ communities, particularly trans youth. She is the founding director of the LGBTQ Certificate.

Dr. Hillier received a BA in History from Middlebury College and her MSW and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Born and raised in a small town in seacoast New Hampshire, she now loves city living and lives with her family in West Philadelphia. When she is not teaching or doing research, you can find her cooking and playing sports with her children or making buttons and other crafts.

Selected Publications

Hillier, A, Smith, TE, Whiteman, ED, Chrisinger, B. 2017. “Discrete choice model of food store trips using National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS).” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 14(10): 1133.

Hillier, Amy and Benjamin Chrisinger. 2017. “The Reality of Urban Food Deserts and What Low-Income Food Shoppers Need.” In Social Policy and Social Justice, edited by John L Jackson, Jr. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Lapham, Sandra C, Deborah A Cohen, Bing Han, Stephanie Williamson, Kelly R Evenson, Thomas L McKenzie, Amy Hillier, and Phillip Ward. 2016. “How important is perception of safety to park use? A four-city survey.” Urban Studies 53(12).

Cannuscio, CC, A Hillier, A Karpyn, and K Glanz. 2014. “The social dynamics of healthy food shopping and store choice in an urban environment.” Social Science and Medicine 122.

Mayer, Victoria L, Amy Hillier, Marcus A Bachhuber, Judith A Long. 2014. “Food Insecurity, Neighborhood Food Access, and Food Assistance in Philadelphia.” Journal of Urban Health 91(6).

Affiliated PhD Student

Jeffrey Sharlein

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Doctoral Candidate in Social Welfare, School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania

School/Department

Areas of Interest

    About

    Jeffrey Sharlein is a PhD student in social welfare in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2).  Prior to entering the program, he worked directly with urban youth in numerous contexts in New York City and Detroit.  Sharlein holds a BA from Wesleyan University and an MSW from Hunter College, where he was awarded the 2006 Jacob Goldfein Award for Scholarship.  A 2012-2013 recipient of SP2’s Chai Doctoral Fellowship, Sharlein’s dissertation research focuses on understanding how inner-city youth who have engaged in serious offending behavior understand that behavior in relation to the neighborhood context.

     

    Faculty Fellow

    Mark Stern

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    Professor of Social Policy and History

    Principal Investigator, Social Impact of the Arts Project

    School/Department

    Areas of Interest

      About

      Mark Stern is Professor of Social Policy and History. He is also is founder and principal investigator of the Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP), a research group at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice. Since 1994 Stern had led project-based inquiry, with support largely by external private and public funders, that conceptualizes culture and the arts as integral to social wellbeing and develops methods for measuring the impact of this sector on community life in Philadelphia and other U.S. cities. Stern holds a Ph.D. in history from York University in Toronto, Canada and a B.A. from Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

      Selected Publications

      Stern, Mark and Susan C. Seifert. 2017. The Social Wellbeing of New York City’s Neighborhoods: The Contribution of Culture and the Arts. SIAP Research Report.

      Stern, Mark. 2011. Age and Arts Participation: A Case against Demographic Destiny. National Endowment for the Arts monograph.

      Stern, Mark and Susan C. Seifert. 2014. Communities, Culture, and Capabilities: Preliminary Results of a Four-­City Study. SIAP Research Report.

      Stern, Mark and Susan C. Seifert. 2013. Cultural Ecology, Neighborhood Vitality, and Social Wellbeing—A Philadelphia Project. SIAP Research Report. 

      Emerging Scholar

      Dan Treglia

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      Research Fellow, University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy & Practice and Department of Veteran's Affairs's National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans

      School/Department

      Areas of Interest

        About

        Dan is a Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs’s National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans. He received his PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016, with a dissertation on the relationship between positive psychological characteristics and shelter use among homeless families in New York City.  He is also a Research Fellow for the United Way’s ALICE Project, which examines the economics and lives of low-income households.

        Selected Publications

        Treglia, D., Rothbard, A. 2015. Evaluating the Cost of Permanent Supportive Housing for Formerly Homeless Adults. Policy Brief. University of Pennsylvania.

        Treglia, D., Montgomery, A.E., Culhane, D.P. 2015. Homelessness in the United States. In K. Anacker, A. Carswell (Eds). Introduction to Housing, Second Edition. University of Georgia Press. Forthcoming.

        Byrne, T., Treglia, D., Culhane, D.P., Kuhn, J., Kane, V. 2015. Predictors of Homelessness Following Exit from Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing: Evidence from the Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program. Housing Policy Debate. Forthcoming.

        Montgomery, A.E., Cutuli, J.J., Evans-Chase, M., Treglia, D., Culhane, D.P. 2013. The Relationship among Adverse Childhood Experiences, History of Active Military Service, and Adult Outcomes: Homelessness, Mental Health and Physical Health.  American Journal of Public Health.  103 (S2): 262-268.

        Byrne, T., Montgomery, A.E., Treglia, D., Roberts, C.B., Culhane, D.P. 2013. Health Services Use Among Veterans Using U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Mainstream Homeless Services. World Medical & Health Policy. 5 (4): 347-361.

        Affiliated PhD Student

        Alexandra Wimberly

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        PhD Candidate in Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania

        School/Department

        Areas of Interest

          About

          Alexandra Schepens is a Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. Her research looks at the cross-section of criminal justice and substance use. This work aims to develop substance use interventions for people in the criminal justice system with the goal of decreasing the imprisoned population.

           

          Emerging Scholar

          Viviana Wu

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          Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy, UMass Amherst

          About

          Viviana C. Wu is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Policy at UMass Amherst. She received her PhD in nonprofit management and social welfare at the Penn School of Social Policy and Practice. Her research revolves around how nonprofits and community of citizens impact local governance through advocacy, mobilization, and innovation on social media platforms and offline arena. She is currently studying community foundations’ strategic use of social media in driving community change. She also examines nonprofit innovation and rivalry advocacy on Facebook in social movements. She holds a MS in Nonprofit Leadership from Penn and a LL.B. and a BSocSc in Public Administration and Laws from the University of Hong Kong. She also serves as the Managing Editor for Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVSQ).

          Selected Publications

          An, S., Wu, V. C., Guo, C. How Stakeholder Mobilization Saved Sweet Briar College. Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership. Forthcoming.

          Wu, V. C. (2016). Innovating Nonprofits: The Case of Episcopal Community Services. Philadelphia Social Innovation Journal, Issue 26.

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