UW School of Social Work doctoral candidate Hannah Scheuer has been named a 2024 Grand Challenges Doctoral Fellow for her scholarship that focuses on reducing mass incarceration in a paper entitled: Individual, Family, & Social Work Perspectives to Disrupt the Foster Care to Prison Pipeline. The study examines the links between child welfare and the criminal legal system in Washington state and offers alternatives from the perspectives of parents and young adults who have experienced child welfare involvement and from social workers who work within these systems.
The Grand Challenges for Social Work is an innovative initiative that champions social progress powered by science. Each of the 13 fellows selected this year receives a customized mentoring program and a $3,000 stipend to support research that better connects their scholarship to the people and communities they are studying. The fellowships are funded by a grant from the The New York Community Trust.
“This new cohort of doctoral fellows demonstrates the commitment and innovative thinking needed to make progress in addressing the Grand Challenges for Social Work,” said Richard P. Barth, professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Social Work and chair of the GCSW Executive Committee. “They will inspire and lead the next generation of social workers tackling the Grand Challenges for our field and society.”
Hannah received her MSW from Portland State University in 2018. She is a licensed clinical social worker who has been engaged in clinical practice with children, youth and families in Oregon and Washington for the past seven years. Her research interests include preventive behavioral intervention research, targeting risky behavior in youth and the development of intervention models that promote adolescent health in diverse populations.