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Diane DePanfilis, PhD, MSW is Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She is also Director of the Ruth H. Young Center for Families and Children, an organized research center designed to promote the safety, permanency and stability, and well-being of children, families, and communities through education and training, research and evaluation, and best practice service programs. During the last thirty-five years, she has (1) provided child welfare services at the local level as a caseworker, supervisor and administrator; (2) worked as a consultant at the national level conducting program evaluations and providing training and technical assistance to child welfare and community based programs; and (3) conducted extensive studies related to the delivery of child welfare services, the prevention of child maltreatment, and the implementation of policies and community service programs. Dr. DePanfilis is Principal Investigator of research about the Family Connections program, a community-based family strengthening outreach service program designed to support vulnerable families to meet the basic needs of their children without the need for formal public child welfare services. Recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for its efforts to prevent child neglect, Family Connections is being replicated in multiple sites across the United States. Recent research and publications relate t the epidemiology and prediction of child maltreatment recurrences; CPS risk assessment, safety evaluation, and decision making; the role of social support in preventing neglect; the costs of caring for children in foster care; outcomes of youth transitioning from child welfare services to independence; and the efficacy and cost effectiveness of Family Connections. She is co-editor of the Handbook for Child Protection Practice, which brings together papers from over seventy interdisciplinary authors. The book is structured to follow the life of a case from the time a report of child maltreatment is made to various pathways in the child protection system and co-author and author of US government published user manuals on the role of child protective services and the prevention, assessment, and intervention with child neglect. Dr. DePanfilis is particularly interested in ways to bridge the gap between research, policy, and practice. She is Past President of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, an interdisciplinary association that works to assure that everyone affected by child maltreatment receives the best possible professional response and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Society for Social Work and Research, an organization devoted to the promotion of human welfare through social work research. |
