A research publication of the Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services at the USC School of Social Work

Hamovitch PIResearchers get boost from private support

5Children’s Data Network expands focus with financial assistance from

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

New report outlines negative consequences of imprisonment

policies in the United States 6 Social work and sociology scholars pursue common ground during

recent conference 8

Although faculty members are continuing to com-pete for grants from federal funding agencies that

have become more selective and rig-orous, they have been concurrently seeking partnerships with private foun-dations, individuals, and corporations

to move their research projects for-ward. And it is becoming clear that

this multifaceted approach to securing research support is essential.

“Everybody is becoming much more accus-tomed to the idea that research is supported by a blend of funding sources,” said Marilyn Flynn, dean of the USC School of Social Work. “The smartest researchers are still being somewhat successful in attracting public support at the same time they are

engaging private donors and private foundations and businesses to support aspects of their work. This kind of

portfolio is what is really needed to advance our research.”This issue of Hamovitch PI

features a series of articles high-lighting how these streams of pri-vate and philanthropic funding have benefited researchers at the school, allowing them to pursue critical research on topics such as providing housing for people who are chronically home-less and ensuring veterans and members of the military receive the support they need in their local communities. t

In an increasingly competitive funding environment, researchers

at the USC School of Social Work have found success reaching

out to new sources of support.

Fall 2014

2 3

in-kind support, and we now have Unihealth to pick up where Newman’s Own left off,” Hassan said. “It’s given us national atten-tion regarding a very important community problem.”

The Unihealth Foundation provided $150,000 to support CIR’s efforts to analyze findings from the Los Angeles survey. The foundation also chipped in an additional $50,000 to help launch a survey in Orange County in collaboration with the Orange County Community Foundation (OCCF), which awarded a $94,000 grant to CIR.

Shelly Hoss, president of OCCF, said the center’s record of successful research on mili-tary-related topics, including the previous survey in Los Angeles County, made it an ideal partner.“As more and more servicemen

and women will be leaving the military and reintegrating into

service members, veterans, and their fami-lies; a newly established data network that is linking information on child welfare and well-being across agencies (see article on page 5); and ongoing efforts to help people experi-encing chronic homelessness transition from life on the streets into supportive housing.

Anthony Hassan, a retired Air Force officer who now directs the school’s Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families, said he has instituted a three-pronged approach to securing funding for research and other initiatives at the center. In addition to several major research grants from the U.S. Department of Defense, he relies heavily on assistance from private foundations and in-kind or corporate donations.

The center has drawn support from the Unihealth Foundation, Lincy Foundation, Deloitte, Prudential, and Newman’s Own Foundation, among other private-sector

organizations, founda-tions, and businesses. That funding allows staff members at the center to engage in community outreach, communication and dissemination, and continuing education.“If I don’t have those

extra sources of funding allowing the center to extend our work, to disseminate our prod-ucts, and to explore innovations, then we are nothing more than a single research project,” Hassan said. “Our cen-ter’s global leadership and engagement is made

possible because of the foundations, the corporations, and the donors who believe in our mission and allow us to do our work without traditional project boundaries.”

One shining example of how the center has been able to leverage this sort of funding is a recent effort to assess the needs of veterans in Los Angeles and Orange counties. A $125,000 award from the

Private funding enhances innovative research projects

In previous issues of this newsletter, we have reported on dynamic challenges of the nation’s research funding environment; achieving success in external funding has become increasingly competitive. Our researchers have successfully countered this dire situation with two main approaches: an increased number of research proposal submissions (a surge of more than 55% during the last two years) and diversification of the school ’s research portfolio by bringing in private foundations and individual donors to complement highly competitive federal funding. This newsletter issue is dedicated to innovative research projects enhanced by private funding secured via collaboration among our faculty researchers, the Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services, and the school ’s Advancement Office.

In particular, the school’s research enterprise has benefited from private support for major initiatives such as our Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families and our new Children’s Data Network, both of which are critically important to ensuring the health and well-being of vulnerable members of our community.

We also report on our international conference on sociology and social work research, which took place for the first time in the United States. Finally, the United States has one of the highest per capita incarceration rates (approximately 700 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2013, more than 60% of whom are Hispanic or black). We describe a federal report on harmful prison policies developed by experts, including one of our faculty members.

From the Director

Haluk Soydan, PhDDirector of the Hamovitch Center

Vol. 4, Issue 3fall 2014

DeanMarilyn Flynn

EditorEric Lindberg

Staff WriterCharli Engelhorn

Hamovitch PI is a research newsletter published quarterly by the Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services at the USC School of Social Work. Send questions, comments, and reprint requests to elindber@usc.edu

Front page graphic/Eric Lindberg

A large grant from the National Institutes of Health can propel a young faculty mem-ber’s career forward and sustain ongoing research for years.

But as public institutions tighten their purse strings and the federal funding envi-ronment grows increasingly competitive, researchers at the USC School of Social Work have begun exploring previously overlooked forms of support, particularly from private foundations, businesses, and philanthropic donors.

These private sources of funding are not neces-sarily supplanting mul-timillion-dollar grants from public agencies, but often allow faculty members to focus on selective issues or explore new areas of inquiry, expand the scope of their research, or disseminate their findings in exciting and inventive ways.“If you think of the func-

tion of private founda-tions in research, they are most effective in helping start up programs,” said Marilyn Flynn, dean of the school. “They are most effective in assisting researchers in areas where for one reason or another there is no federal funding. They allow for innovation, for extension, and for communication of research in ways that would not otherwise be possible.”

Major initiatives at the school that have benefited from grants or gifts from founda-tions, corporations, and individuals include the creation of a center focused on military

“If you think of the function of private

foundations in research, they are usually most

effective in helping start up programs. They

allow for innovation, for extension, and

for communication of research in ways that

would not otherwise be possible.”

Marilyn Flynn

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Newman’s Own Foundation and pro bono support from Deloitte helped researchers at CIR collect information on service members, vet-erans, and their family mem-bers throughout Los Angeles County, in addition to assessing the extent of available services to address their needs.

Although researchers are still analyzing the results of the comprehensive survey, they are confident the findings will significantly affect policies and programs related to the mili-tary community.

The success of the initia-tive in Los Angeles County inspired other philanthropic organizations and businesses to contribute to the project and a similar effort in Orange County.“With that initial seed money,

we have been able to partner with Deloitte, which has invested over half a million dollars in

civilian life, it is important to us that Orange County is a welcoming and supportive environment for them to come home to,” she said. “This assess-ment will help us to identify what gaps there are and how we can provide effective sup-port where it is needed.”

CIR’s reputation also played a major role in drawing funding from the Unihealth Foundation, which has been supporting vet-erans for more than a decade through partnerships with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other nonprofit organizations. Mary Odell, president of the foundation, said the benefit of support from private sources is that it tends to be more flexible.“Public dollars are very

restricted in terms of use,” she said. “The gift of philanthropic dollars is they can be applied more broadly.”

Researchers with the Center for

Innovation and Research on Veterans &

Military Families, led by director Anthony

Hassan (right), rely on private and

philanthropic funding to support training,

education, and community outreach.

>>

In the world of academic research, streams of funding

from federal and state agencies are king.

Hassan agreed, noting that federal funding, although essential to supporting inno-vation and discovery, often includes restrictions regarding how that money can be used. Coupled with the fact that many private organizations are increasingly interested in sup-porting research on military-related issues, particularly as more service members return home from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lure of seeking philanthropic sup-port is strong.

However, Hassan noted that he has become increasingly

Funding | continued on page 10

4 5Foundation support expands reach of data network

Receiving funding from First 5 LA to develop the Children’s Data Network (CDN) meant the two researchers from the USC School of Social Work would be prioritizing information related to the ini-tial phases of life, from infancy to 5 years old.

But the groundbreaking project quickly drew interest from other institutions, including the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, which had worked with Putnam-Hornstein on a previous project and recently developed an initiative to support teens who were close to transitioning out of the foster care system.

The foundation approved an $800,000 grant to the data network to help researchers acquire and inte-grate information on transition-age foster youths, in addition to promoting the use of existing linked data and supporting a postdoctoral research scholar to advance research on this vulnerable population.“There is a tendency on the part of philanthropists to

want to go immediately to the tangible and concrete—how do I give someone something or provide a ser-vice?” said Putnam-Hornstein, an assistant professor.

“But you have to first understand what policies and programs are effective and you need data and research to do a lot of that background work. I think it’s terrific that the Hilton Foundation carved out data and new knowledge as a core part of its initiative.”

Because the foundation is interested in research on challenges during adolescence, collaborating with First 5 LA to support the CDN seemed like a natural fit.

There are problems and issues unique to each stage of childhood, said McCroskey, who serves as the John Milner Professor of Child Welfare, but events and experiences that occur during those discrete periods inevitably affect outcomes in later life.“You can learn a lot by looking at what happens

to young children, but if you aren’t also looking at development and what happens in adolescence, you

Endowed professorships bring prestige to researchersthat we will have a very highly qualified faculty in perpetuity,” she said.

On a practical level, the funding supports the salaries of top scholars and can even include assistance with travel and other aspects of research. To the faculty mem-bers who receive an endowed professorship, however, there is an added layer of meaning.

Kathleen Ell, the Ernest P. Larson Professor of Health, Ethnicity, and Poverty, views the honor as lending a certain sense of legitimacy to her work. A member of the fac-ulty since 1980, Ell has dedicated her career to research on the interplay among chronic illness, depression, and mortality.“The title emphasizes my

career aims, which are to study and ultimately help low-income populations, ethnically and racially diverse populations,” she said. “That’s where my heart and mind have been for a long, long time.”

As a social work scholar who specializes in health-related issues, Ell said she believes having a named professorship has been crit-ical to her ability to secure federal grants for

her research and ensure that her findings are published in leading medical journals.“It carries with it some recognition outside

of social work,” she said. “People who review grants recognize it. It signals that you are doing something important and unique.”

Similar sentiments were shared by her colleague, Iris Chi, who was named the Chinese-American Golden Age Association/Frances Wu Chair for the

Chinese Elderly upon joining the school’s faculty in 2004. Although she had been a well-established and recognized researcher in gerontology and issues of aging among Chinese older adults, Chi said she has also noticed a change after receiving the title.“Many people knew

about me and my work before I came to USC, but

after I joined USC with an endowed chair, people who would have in the past seen me as a colleague now refer to me more as the leading person in this area,” she said.

That has led to opportunities such as being asked to convene an interest group

Prestige | continued on page 11

Iris Chi, who was named

the Chinese-American

Golden Age Association/

Frances Wu Chair for

the Chinese Elderly in

2004, said the title brings

added weight to her

efforts to explore issues

related to aging among

Chinese populations.

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aren’t getting the full picture,” McCroskey said.With funding to support data acquisition and

research on both ends of the childhood development spectrum, researchers will be able to generate more knowledge about how children and families change over time based on various factors, such as whether having a parent who is incarcerated or not receiving certain early childhood education services affects academic achievement during adolescence.

The research team already has a solid example of how this sort of data linkage can enhance understanding of child development, thanks to a previous grant from the Hilton Foundation before the CDN was created.

The foundation awarded $125,000 to Putnam-Hornstein several years ago to investigate teen preg-nancy and parenting, and foundation officials said

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“If you are an endowed faculty member, it

carries some weight. It carries with it some recognition outside of

social work.”

Kathleen ell

To many it may seem like a simple title, but earning an endowed

professorship or chair at the USC School of Social Work sends a

strong message.“It’s an excellent way to attract out-

standing faculty and it’s a very impor-tant mechanism for recognizing research accomplishments,” said Marilyn Flynn, the school’s dean. “It’s one of the few ways we have of publicly endorsing and honoring the achievements of research faculty.”

The school currently boasts nine named professorships and chairs, and in addition to recognizing individual talent, Flynn said they help promote the school’s presence and expertise in particular areas of research, including aging, vulnerable populations, child welfare, health and mental health, and social policy and development.“It is also an enduring way of ensuring data | continued on page 12

When they launched an innovative effort to link data on child welfare and well-being across various

agencies and organizations, Emily Putnam-Hornstein and Jacquelyn McCroskey initially planned to focus

only on very young children.

The Conrad N. Hilton

Foundation has supported

the work of assistant

professor Emily Putnam-

Hornstein (left) and

Jacquelyn McCroskey,

the John Milner Professor

of Child Welfare, as

they develop a new data

repository to link information

on child welfare and well-

being across public agencies

and organizations.

6 7

third encompassed the previous two ques-tions in determining whether the policies surrounding incarceration were just.“The report addresses these issues from

a very academic perspective,” said Valdez. “The data we used were compiled from pre-viously published resources and from the work of the committee members, who all brought information and experiences from decades of work relating to one aspect of this issue, whether it was from an economic, mental health, or historical perspective.”

The National Research Council, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, cre-ated the committee to bring together experts from across the academic spectrum to examine the issue of incarceration, Valdez said. The National Academy of Sciences is tasked with improving public policies and programs to promote informed and more advantageous decisions in the federal government.

Valdez said he believes he >>

was chosen for the committee because of his extensive research experience on issues affecting the Hispanic community and related policies, especially substance abuse issues. The consequence of substance abuse is often incarceration for this population, he said, and this outcome affects more than just imprisoned individuals and their family members. The social and cultural impact of incarceration and reentry of inmates has larger ramifications for the Hispanic com-munity in general, Valdez said.“Hispanic immigrants make up almost

40 to 50 percent of inmates in the federal system,” he said. “There is a disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos incarcerated, but more research has focused on the black community. What I could bring forth was the understanding of a sort of Hispanic Jim Crow, especially in the Southwest.”

The committee proposed that much of the imbalance in racial representation in prisons has its origins in the pernicious laws of the late 1960s and early 1970s developed in response to the civil rights movement and the ensuing legislative sup-port for racial equality. The laws created stricter sentencing regulations for minor crimes and barred convicted felons from many constitutional rights, including the right to vote, access to social services, and equal access to employment.“Although blacks and Hispanics had won

the right to vote as a result of laws such as the Voting Rights Act, a felony charge for a small offense would take away that right forever,” Valdez said. “The war on drugs also changed the landscape for convictions, with many states adopting mandatory laws for any drug-related offense, regardless of the judge’s discretion or other contingencies.”

Essentially, these new laws placed non-violent offenders in prison for lengthy periods, he said. For example, an individual facing a minor first-offense drug posses-sion charge could have received a warning or a few months in jail if the judge deemed the punishment suitable for the crime.

However, once the mandatory sentences were created, that same offense could result in a sentence of 10 to 15 years. Considering that most drug violations occur in disad-vantaged areas, it is not surprising that minority men and underserved commu-nities are feeling the brunt of these laws, Valdez said. The committee also explored the length and stated purpose of sentences for more serious offenses.

Report criticizes U.S. prison policies

That was just one of many questions Avelardo Valdez, a professor with the USC School of Social Work, and other members of the Committee on Causes and Consequences of High Rates of Incarceration explored during an 18-month assessment of policies and outcomes related to the high incarceration rate in the United States. The result of the committee’s data analyses was a 464-page report titled “The Growth of Incarceration in the United States,” which was published in April.“The National Research Council is prob-

ably the most prestigious research institu-tion in the federal government,” said Valdez.

“The council saw the question of incarcera-tion as a problem that needed addressing. The committee was composed of social scientists from public policy, corrections, economics, and sociological disciplines to provide their data and knowledge. The report represents some of the best minds to focus on this issue.”

In recent years, the federal government began to realize its imprisonment poli-cies were not as functional as they could be, Valdez said. The committee focused on the intended purposes of the policies and how those policies developed over time. At the forefront of the conversation were three main issues related to rates of incarceration.

The first questioned whether imprisoning large numbers of individuals actually has an effect on crime prevention and reha-bilitation. The second focused on dispari-ties in the racial composition of the prison population, given that blacks and Latinos and comprise the majority of inmates. The

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Approximately 2.2 million

adults are kept behind

bars in the U.S. penal

system, by far the largest

imcarcerated population

in the world.

Does incarceration work as a deterrent for

criminal behavior?

recidivism declines with age, meaning that sentences that keep people imprisoned into older adulthood are generally not necessary.“The report represents a paradigm shift

and hopefully will inspire more just and fair policies,” Valdez said.

The committee offered recommendations to address many of these issues, and efforts to reduce the prison population have begun during the last few years, with states such as California changing their policies and releasing many nonviolent criminals, although mostly due to economic consid-erations and federal litigation.“The experience of being on the committee

has increased my interest in issues related to incarceration and reentry into communities,” Valdez said. “I will definitely be looking at these issues more as I move forward in my research with Hispanic communities.” t

1:100In 2012, approximately 1 of every 100 adults in the United States was being

held in prison or jail

2.1mBetween 1980 and

2000, the number of children with incarcerated

fathers increased from 350,000 to 2.1 million, or approximately 3 percent of

all U.S. children

60%In 2011, 60 percent of all individuals behind

bars were either black or Hispanic

As a member of a federal committee tasked with

exploring high rates of incarceration in the United

States, professor Avelardo Valdez found that the

rate of imprisonment has more than quadrupled

during the past four decades. In a recently released

report, the committee argued that policy makers

need to revise criminal justice guidelines, including

sentencing laws and drug enforcement, to reduce

the financial and social costs of being the most

punitive culture in the world.

“There really is no evidence suggesting the massive incarcerations and extended sentences affect crime rates,” Valdez said.

“Prior to the 60s, prisons had rehabilitation services, but most of those were termi-nated with these tough-on-crime policies that swept the nation during the following decades. Now prisons are simply holding facilities for men and women.”

Long sentences do not make sense for various reasons, according to the report, including the negative impact on the mental health of inmates and the dimin-ishing effect of incarceration over time. Experiences in prison and the life skills required for survival are not the same as those needed in conventional society. Due to an increase in isolation policies, many people are unable to adjust to life beyond the penitentiary. Furthermore, studies show

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By Charli Engelhorn

8 9

During a recent two-day conference hosted by the USC School of Social Work, leading scholars representing the two pro-fessions met to discuss those commonali-ties and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, in addition to acknowl-edging the historical tension between soci-ology’s theoretical focus and social work’s emphasis on policy and practice.

After three similar gatherings in Europe, hosting the event on U.S. soil for the first time brought that tension into sharper focus, said Haluk Soydan, associate dean of research and director of the Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services at the USC School of Social Work.“Mainstream U.S. social work research

is very much action related, as opposed to some of the theoretical, academic discus-sions going on in European settings,” he said. “We can learn from them and they can learn from us.”

The conference featured a series of group sessions focused on specific issues ranging from evidence-based practice and inte-grating social work into medical settings to HIV risk behaviors among homeless women and depression care for chronically ill individuals.

Participants also gathered for plenary sessions on the historical roots of soci-ology and social work, an ongoing effort to develop a scientific foundation for the pro-fession of social work, a national initiative

Social workers and sociologists find common ground

In describing Jane Addams, a pioneer of social work and one of the founders of Hull House, Deegan said she emphasized a commitment to nonviolent, democratic advocacy to the benefit of vulnerable individuals in the community. That often brought her into conflict with sociologists at the time, who placed a greater emphasis on impersonal and objective approaches to social problems.“A lot of people pay lip ser-

vice to Jane Addams, but they

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As two fields of study that grew out

of the social sciences, social work and

sociology naturally share many common interests, including a desire to advance

scientific understanding of societal issues to benefit humankind.

>>

to identify grand challenges facing society, and a case study of an interdisciplinary graduate program seeking to merge social work and sociology.

Mary Jo Deegan, a professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and an expert on the history of sociology and social work, described the development of the two professions during the late 1800s and early 1900s, particularly through the establishment of Hull House as a social settlement house in Chicago.

Stephen Gethin-Jones (above), a senior lecturer

at the University of Central Lancashire, discusses

well-being in old age and implications for social work

practice during a conference breakout session.

After delivering a plenary speech on the historical

interactions and conflicts between the professions of

sociology and social work, Mary Jo Deegan (left), a

professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska–

Lincoln, speaks with a conference attendee.

don’t really do what she did,” Deegan said.That conflict bled over into academia,

she said, particularly at the University of Chicago, where social work and sociology had shared a close alliance until the 1920s, when the university created a separate school of social service administration to divide the two professions.

Deegan said women had become unhappy with how they were treated in the sociology department, and when the split came, they were placed on a separate track.“They were condescended to, they were

seen as being less professional,” she said, adding later, “The men’s track led to advance-ment and prestige within sociology and the women’s track led out of the profession.”

Although some individuals still advocate for value-free objective sociology, Deegan said there has been an effort in recent decades to return to the model advocated by Addams, in which sociologists interact with and are committed to communities, rather than focusing on abstract and less personal approaches to problems in society.“Natural science is not a good model for

people who work with human beings,” she said. “We shouldn’t give up our goal of rig-orous standards for data collection, but we must be connected to people.”

Ensuring that social work and sociology have a lasting effect on communities is a major focus of a recent initiative led by the USC School of Social Work to identify grand challenges facing society. Marilyn Flynn, dean of the school, said the two professions are uniquely situated to address major issues in the arenas of health, energy, and transportation, among others.

Nonetheless, she argued that social work and sociology have lagged behind in terms of developing solutions for those problems. Despite having expertise in the complexity of social factors and relationships, the pro-fessions are not influencing and leading the debate, defining issues, and setting the agenda.“The kind of research we are doing is

fragmented, the theory is fragmented,” she said. “We are not advancing, certainly not in a major way, the solutions to the largest social problems we are facing.”

In collaboration with several other uni-versities and the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare, the school is in the process of identifying unifying themes that can help the professions of social work and sociology organize their academic and professional roles.

“A lot of people pay lip service to Jane Addams, but they don’t really do

what she did.”

Mary Jo deegan

“It is profoundly inspiring to come together as a group and consider

what might be the most significant things we could do in the next 10 to 15 years that have high

relevance to society. It directs everyone’s attention to innovation,

to forward movement, to reinvention, to rediscovery of the fundamental things we do best.”

Marilyn Flynn

These problems must be challenging but solvable in a relatively short period of time, Flynn said, and must have deep importance to individuals and communities.“It is profoundly inspiring to come

together as a group and consider what might be the most significant things we could do in the next 10 to 15 years that have high relevance to society and that would be demonstrable in terms of their effects,” she said. “It directs everyone’s attention to innovation, to forward movement, to rein-vention, to rediscovery of the fundamental things we do best.”

Innovation and reinvention are also at the heart of a new program at Tulane University that is seeking to merge the approaches of sociology, social work, and urban studies. During a plenary session at the conference, representatives from the university’s nascent City, Culture, and Community program described some of the challenges of trying to integrate several academic disciplines.

Michele Adams, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology at Tulane University, said she is optimistic that the interdisciplinary approach will prove successful, despite logistical issues related to bridging distinct academic units.“I think we should try to change or

address those disciplinary barriers and create programs that our students walk away from with new ways of looking at their work,” she said. “I think that is what

interdisciplinarity is all about.”As the outgoing chair of the program,

Fred Buttell said he believes creating an interdisciplinary education model is diffi-cult to achieve when disciplines are natu-rally separated into various schools and departments, not to mention the challenge of seeking employment in job markets that are often specific to a single discipline.

Students in the program take courses in all three topic areas, he said, and ultimately select a focus that will be reflected on their degree. However, whether a student who focused on social work will be a viable can-didate for sociology positions is unclear.“That’s not a failure of our training,

that’s a failure of the way these fields view interdisciplinary candidates,” Buttell said, adding later, “Hopefully their training will translate into the types of relationships and work they do once they are in their first academic gig.”

Finding new ways to inspire students and encourage individuals to invest in social work and sociology is critical to advance the professions, Flynn said.

She noted that although some have argued that the two disciplines have grown stag-nant and are not needed, having an under-standing of social and behavioral factors in tandem with physical and biological sci-ences is critical to solving societal problems.“In fact, if we do it right,” she said, “I think

we are more relevant than at any time in our respective histories.” t

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Ty Michael Carter’s presentation during a CIR event and wanted to help the center

address problems that affect military-affiliated individuals, such as high rates of unemployment, behavioral health prob-lems, and issues reinte-grating into society after deployment.

She recently donated an additional $20,000 to CIR to help the center bring together military researchers from across the United States and other countries for a two-day meeting to build aca-demic partnerships and share strategies.“It’s kind of the way I

grew up,” Ell said of her decision to make a personal donation to the school.

“We were pretty poor but my father’s slogan was to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” t

Funding | from page 3

cautious about accepting funding from the private sector that does not match the cen-ter’s research needs or priorities.

Odell said ensuring that grants are respon-sive to the needs of the community has been a main focus of the Unihealth Foundation. In addition to supporting CIR’s efforts in the military realm, the foundation has awarded funding to John Brekke, the Frances G. Larson Professor of Social Work Research, to examine issues among individuals with serious mental illness.

In particular, the foundation provided initial funding of approximately $150,000 to test an inventive method of helping people with serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia receive care and support. The model involves employing peer naviga-tors, or people who have personal experi-ence with severe mental illness, as guides to help clients navigate the often labyrin-thine health care system. Initial findings indicated that the model was effective, and Brekke received a $1.2 million award from the federal Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to continue his work.

“That’s a great win in our mind because a very modest amount of philanthropic dollars seeded a project, enabled him to collect good data, and positioned him to drawn down a really nice pot of federal funding,” Odell said.

A similar stream of seed funding helped Suzanne Wenzel, a professor and chair of the school’s Research Council, secure a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She relied in part on $100,000 from an individual donor, J. Scott Watt, to explore transitions to per-manent supportive housing among people experiencing chronic homelessness.

Initial results from a pilot study led to the proposal for federal funding—an application that received a perfect score from reviewers.“I am so pleased that Scott’s initial invest-

ment in the school’s research efforts on homelessness—in the form of a monetary gift to advance my research—has resulted in such a high rate of return in the science we can do and in the difference we can make,” she said.

Watt, a homebuilder who graduated from USC and serves as chair of the school’s Board of Councilors, said he has been a longtime advocate for strategies to end homelessness and is interested in finding

new ways to improve communication and interaction among organizations that serve homeless individuals.“You can’t just throw money at it, it’s a lot

tougher problem than that,” he said. “There are so many of these organizations that can’t seem to see past what they are doing and the synergies that can come from put-ting their efforts together. Suzanne saw that and we are now seeing some of the benefits of bringing these people together.”

Watt and his wife, Obaida, also funded a forum at the school several years ago that involved participants from Los Angeles city and county agencies, private service agen-cies, and academia interested in integrated care and supportive housing. Wenzel said such a diverse gathering of people engaged in the issue of homelessness is rare.“Frontline case workers who meet and

work with people on the streets every day, agency heads such as the director of the L.A. County Department of Mental Health, and leading researchers on services for people with mental illness and home-lessness were all in the same room together,” she said. “They were hearing one another’s perspectives and concerns and problem solving with one another.”

Wenzel and her research team have since built on some of the relationships they developed with organizations and public officials during the forum, including some agencies that are now involved in the recently funded project on transitioning to permanent supportive housing.

Watt said he is hopeful that Wenzel’s continued efforts will lead to increased collaboration among service providers and a greater emphasis by politicians on addressing the needs of chronically home-less individuals. “Her work is going a long way toward making them aware of what the real issues are,” he said.

In addition to benefiting from the generosity of individuals such as Watt, the school is also drawing support from within its walls. Two professors have made personal donations to advance research initiatives in recent years.

Bruce Jansson, the Margaret W. Driscoll/Louise M. Clevenger Professor of Social Policy and Administration, has dedicated his career to research on the well-being of vulnerable populations, par-ticularly in terms of patient and policy advocacy in the health care sector.

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J. Scott Watt, chairman and CEO of Watt Companies, provided support to professor Suzanne

Wenzel to pursue research on housing for individuals

experiencing homelessness. Results from a pilot study led to a successful application for a $2.7 million grant from the National

Institute on Drug Abuse.

He donated $38,000 to support a post-doctoral scholar to help him obtain data on the extent to which certain medical personnel, including nurses and social workers, advocate on behalf of their patients. The gift is funded with royalties from two of Jansson’s books and sup-plemented with support from the school’s research cluster on Management, Organizations and Policy Transformation.

Inspired by a Medal of Honor recipient who described his personal struggles with post-traumatic stress dis-order, Kathleen Ell also made a personal con-tribution of $10,000 to research efforts at the school. Ell, the Ernest P. Larson Professor of Health, Ethnicity, and Poverty, said she was moved by Staff Sgt.

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“The smartest researchers are still

being somewhat successful in attracting

public support at the same time they are

engaging private donors and private foundations

and businesses to support aspects of

their work. This kind of portfolio is what is really is needed to advance our

research.”

Marilyn Flynn

within the Gerontological Society of America on Chinese gerontology research, Chi said, which now features more than 250 members and is one of the organization’s largest interest groups.

Chi has met frequently with Frances Wu, the namesake of her endowed chair, and delivers yearly reports on her research to inform Wu of her achievements.“I really admire her,” she said of Wu,

who developed and oversaw an apart-ment complex for low-income older adults in Monterey Park. “She is a great social worker and has done so much for the community. I don’t think I’ll ever match her energy, but I’ll try my best to make sure her legacy continues.”

Another researcher at the school who is keenly aware of the legacy attached to his endowed professorship is Ron Astor, the Richard M. and Ann L. Thor Professor of Urban Social Development. He met regularly with the couple until Richard’s death in 2011 and continues to share his progress with Ann on efforts to reduce school violence and support children from military families in school and community settings.

Astor said the title is particularly meaningful to him because of the life-long commitment of Richard and Ann Thor to social work and philanthropy, not to mention the fact that Richard earned a master’s degree in social work from USC in the same graduating class as Astor’s father, in 1958.“I couldn’t be prouder to be following

in their footsteps,” he said. “Everything I do is done in their name. It’s on our publications, our grants, our presenta-tions. People know that their efforts supported this kind of work.”

In terms of the benefits Astor has seen from having an endowed professorship, he emphasized the increased weight of his voice on issues such as preventing school shootings or helping military children deal with the overseas deploy-ment of a parent. He has visited the White House on several occasions to share his research findings, in addition to meeting with top education officials in France and Israel.“I can’t help but feel that the title gives

you access and the ability to convey your ideas at high levels,” he said. “People

Prestige | from page 4

Private donations have

helped researchers at the

Center for Innovation and

Research on Veterans &

Military Families collect

data on the needs of

military service members,

veterans, and their family

members in Los Angeles

and Orange counties.

Honor | continued on page 12

Hamovitch Center | 1149 South Hill Street, Suite 360 | Los Angeles, CA 90015USC School of Social Work | Montgomery Ross Fisher Building | 669 West 34th Street | Los Angeles, CA 90089

213.821.3628 | hrc@usc.edu | usc.edu/socialwork/research

the resulting report proved highly valuable to practitioners and policy makers.“It was much better than we could have

imagined,” said Jeannine Balfour, senior program officer for the Hilton Foundation.

“The data was sobering, but her thorough-ness made it a great research study.”

In fact, that report may have helped the researchers secure support for the CDN, Putnam-Hornstein said, because it gave leaders from both First 5 LA and the Hilton Foundation confidence that such research could be conducted efficiently despite the com-plexity of working with massive popula-tion-level datasets.“One of the big-

gest barriers a lot of researchers and grant makers and practitio-ners have is trying to access data,” Balfour added. “This idea of having one entity doing this, taking the bull by the horns and trying to get as much administrative data as possible so it is more accessible, is a win-win for everyone.”

Supplementing public funding—in this case, cigarette tax revenues from the state that are funneled through First 5 programs—with private support from organizations

such as the Hilton Foundation has proven successful for the data network.“Foundations play a really critical role,

not replacing federal or state funding, but by filling gaps and recognizing opportuni-ties where there is a need for information and the foundation is positioned to move quickly and efficiently with its support,” Putnam-Hornstein said.

McCroskey, who has relied on philan-thropic funding during much of her research career, emphasized the relatively less con-

strained nature of private support compared to the rigorous and intensive process of securing fed-eral grants.“It has several great

advantages—the flex-ibility, the timeliness, the ability to try things out in partnership with people who have the same interests,” she said, adding later, “It’s much more focused on application and action,

which is our focus. The CDN is framed around action and determining who needs to have information to improve outcomes for youth and families.“When you have decision makers who

want to make changes, getting the knowl-edge to them as soon as possible can make a significant difference.” t

data | from page 5

Professor Suzanne Wenzel has been invited to join the Research Council of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The council is responsible for developing policy analyses and recommendations that influence both federal and local policy, educate policy makers, and advance com-munity capacity for implementation of best practices. The organization is widely considering the leading voice in preventing and ending homelessness in the United States. Wenzel chairs the Research Council at the USC School of Social Work and is the director of the Homelessness, Housing, and Social Environment research cluster.

The Building Capacity to Create Highly Supportive Military-Connected School Districts Consortium has been selected to receive the 2014 Pete Taylor Partnership of Excellence Award

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in the category of exemplary higher education partnerships. The award is considered the highest honor from the Military Child Education Coalition. Spearheaded by Ron Astor, the Richard M. and Ann L. Thor Professor of Urban Social Development, and his research team, the consortium has brought together 145 schools, 350 organizations, and five universities to develop better ways to support children from military families in the community.

Associate professor Karen Lincoln has been selected as a fellow of the Behavioral and Social Sciences Section of the Gerontological Society of America. Fellowship is the society’s highest class of member and recognizes outstanding and ongoing work in the field of gerontology. Lincoln also serves as associate director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging at the USC School of Social Work. Ph

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An $800,000 grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

is helping researchers at the USC School of Social

Work link data across public agencies and organizations to explore issues faced by

teens transitioning out of the foster care system.

Honor | from page 11

listen a little more carefully, they take notes, and I do feel that it’s important in signifying that this person has a track record, they’ve done a lot, and the ideas they are presenting can help many others.”

Although Astor said he is honored to have received the endowed professorship, he said he views the title as recognizing and supporting his work, not his per-sonal achievements.“I’m very much in favor of anything that

will elevate the importance of what we do and say,” he said. “Whatever I do, it’s not just for me. It’s about getting a mes-sage across that can guide policy, change laws, and change the day-to-day lives of individuals who are suffering and not receiving support.”

Other endowed professors at the school are John Brekke, the Frances G. Larson Professor of Social Work Research; Bruce Jansson, the Margaret W. Driscoll/Louise M. Clevenger Professor of Social Policy and Administration; Jacquelyn McCroskey, the John Milner Professor of Child Welfare; Michalle Mor Barak, the Lenore Stein-Wood and William S. Wood Professor; Lawrence Palinkas, who holds the Frances L. and Albert G. Feldman Endowed Professorship in Social Policy and Health; and Penelope Trickett, the David Lawrence Stein/Violet Goldberg Sachs Professor of Mental Health. t