Deborah is currently a doctoral student in the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). Her research interests are non-profit management, program development, and policy construction related to community based services and advocacy in response to domestic and sexual violence. 

Deborah is a graduate research assistant with Dr. Terry Shaw for the Fostering Safe Choices project, research examining the incidence and scope of pregnancy among youth in foster care, and identifying potential prevention strategies for this population of youth.  She is also assisting Dr. Charlotte Bright on the Juvenile Justice Out-of-Home Care Analysis Project.  

Prior to coming to UMB in 2008, Deborah worked for twenty-one years as an advocate, educator, and administrator in feminist non-profit organizations advocating on behalf of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She is a licensed social worker in Pennsylvania.  Prior to coming to the east coast, Deborah worked in state systems of juvenile and adult corrections, and probation and parole for eight years. She received a Masters in Social Work from Rutgers University in 1988, and a Bachelors of Arts in Sociology/Anthropology from Western Illinois University in 1978.