Research Team

Principal Investigator

Julia is Principal Investigator of the Never Again research study and is an Associate Processor in the School of Social Work at Temple University’s Barnett College of Public Health. She brings expertise in research methods, child welfare systems, and child maltreatment. She leads all aspects of the project, including study coordination, ensuring protection of human subjects and appropriate IRB oversight, research methods, and dissemination. Julia oversees collaboration among co-investigators and community partners and facilitates Community Advisory Board meetings.

Co-Investigators

Melissa is a Professor in the School of Social Work at Temple University Barnett College of Public Health. Melissa’s research focuses on violence, victimization, trauma, and health disparities, with expertise in qualitative, mixed-methods, and community-engaged research. On this project, she supports the design and implementation of the community-engaged and qualitative components, including development of interview protocols, trauma-informed interviewing and focus group facilitation, qualitative data analysis, and contributes to dissemination activities.

Carolina is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work with a decade of practice experience as a clinical social worker across diverse settings, including criminal justice with youth, domestic violence shelters, and legal services organizations supporting families, women, and children. Carolina’s expertise includes culturally responsive approaches to research and practice, with a particular focus on racial and ethnic disparities, prevention strategies, and community engagement efforts. On this project, she supports the design and implementation of qualitative focus groups and interviews, Spanish-language interviewing, qualitative data analysis, and contributes to dissemination activities. Her strengths-based and culturally responsive approach, including expertise related to racial and ethnic disparities, informs the project’s prevention strategies and community engagement efforts.

Kevin is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Urban Studies at Temple University. Kevin brings expertise in health/medical geography, spatial epidemiology, population science, and geospatial analysis. On this project, he provides guidance on geospatial analyses, including developing spatial measures, indices, and spatial survival models, and contributes to dissemination activities.

Jennie is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at University of Rochester. She provides expertise in child sexual abuse, child maltreatment prevention, and the translation of research into prevention strategies. Jennie guides the conceptual development of natural language processing analyses, contributes her expertise to data interpretation across study aims, and helps translate findings into prevention-focused models and strategies.

Krista is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nursing at Temple University’s Barnett College of Public Health. Krista brings expertise in geographic information systems (GIS), spatial analysis, and trauma-informed research focused on adverse childhood experiences and neighborhood health factors. Additionally, she has clinical nursing experience in Philadelphia in trauma/critical care and sexual assault care. On this project she supports geocoding and neighborhood-level analyses, and contributes trauma-informed guidance and clinical expertise on the qualitative components of the project.

Chang is an Assistant Professor of Health Informatics and Artificial Intelligence at Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University. Chang brings expertise in machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and the analysis of multi-modal health data. On this project, he leads the methodological development and implementation of the natural language processing analyses, collaborates on integrating extracted data into administrative datasets, and contributes to dissemination activities.

Coming Soon!

Jingwei is an Associate Professor and primary research faculty of the Biostatistics Core Center in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Temple University Barnett College of Public Health. Jingwei has significant expertise developing novel statistical and computational methods to address a broad spectrum of health problems. On this project, he leads the statistical analyses and contributes to dissemination activities.

Project Coordinator

Alyssa is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Health Services Administration and Policy at Temple University Barnett College of Public Health. She oversees the coordination and administration of project activities.

Research Assistants

Simone is a Research Assistant in the School of Social Work at Temple University’s Barnett College of Public Health. She assists with project research and contributes to dissemination activities.

Junchao is a PhD student and Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Health Services Administration and Policy at Temple University’s Barnett College of Public Health. He supports data linkage and the construction of analysis-ready datasets, the natural language processing analysis, geocoding, assembly of the neighborhood-level data, data management, and quantitative modeling.

Scout is a Graduate Research Assistant for the School of Social Work at Temple University’s Barnett College of Public Health. They contribute to the annotation of Forensic Interview notes for Large Language Model verification.

Community Partners

Emily is the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance Data Management Specialist. On this project she serves as a Community Partner and provides guidance related to the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance datasets.

Vickie is currently the Chief Operations Officer at the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance. She oversees all programming at the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance and ensures that the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance delivers exceptional Intake, Forensic, Victim Support and Clinical Services to all children and families presented with allegations of sexual abuse. On this project, she provides guidance and support based on her deep expertise of multidisciplinary team practice and the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance datasets.

Sharon is currently the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance. She directs the development of program data trends, team trainings and professional development, community conference programming, workshops for professionals and caregivers, and develops community partnerships for Philadelphia Children’s Alliance. On this project, she serves as a Community Partner and assists with the convening of the Community Advisory Board.

Alissa is a Human Services Program Director -Special Investigations Region at the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. On this project, she provides guidance and support based on her deep expertise on Philadelphia Department of Human Services policies and practice with children who have experienced child sexual abuse.