Leadership:
Dr. Laura S. Abrams, Principal Investigator and Research Director
Michelle Talley, LCSW, Training/Field Director
Dr. Bridget Freisthler, Spatial Analysis and GIS Consultant
Dr. Alfreda Iglehart, Policy Director
Affiliated Faculty:
Dr. Michael A. Stoll, Chair of Public Policy in the School of Public Affairs
Miriam Aroni Krinsky, JD, Adjunct Professor at Loyola Law School
Dr. Laura S. Abrams, Principal Investigator and Research Director, has been a professor at UCLA since 2005. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in 2000 and held a position as an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, School of Social Work from 2000-2005.
Her research focuses on identity formation and transition processes among populations considered to be “at-risk” of negative outcomes. She has published extensively from a four year ethnographic study on young men’s identity transitions in the context of juvenile correctional facilities. These works explore institutional influences on identity and behaviors as well as youths’ subjective accounts of criminality, “risk,” and treatment programs seeking to reshape their identities through various therapeutic practices. She is currently focused on understanding the reentry experience for formerly incarcerated youth, and incorporating a spatial perspective into these studies. Her work is supported by grants from the UCLA Faculty Senate, the NIH Center for Vulnerable Populations Research, and the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation.
Michelle Talley, LCSW, Training/Field Director, received her Masters in Social Work from UCLA. For many years, she worked as a mental health clinician dealing with children impacted by abuse and neglect within their family nucleus, as well as substance use/abuse, criminal issues, education, and poverty. Ms. Talley has also worked as an adoption social worker with Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
Currently, her main area of focus is working with youth and families as they relate to the juvenile justice and Public Child Welfare systems. Other areas of expertise are domestic violence, substance use, education, and attachment in youth and families. Ms. Talley also teaches direct clinical social work classes for first and second year MSW students at the UCLA school of Social Welfare.
Dr. Bridget Freisthler, Spatial Analysis and GIS Consultant, is an expert in incorporating cutting edge spatial analysis methods through Geographic Information Systems (GIS), spatial statistics, and spatial econometrics in 1) understanding how social problems vary across geographic areas, such as neighborhoods, 2) identifying those areas in a community which are at risk for developing or already experiencing high levels of social problems based on a growing understanding of neighborhood ecologies, and 3) examining how the location of social services may further help or hinder the development of problems in neighborhood areas.
Dr. Freisthler is currently a professor in the Department of Social Welfare at UCLA. Previously, she held the position of Associate Research Scientist at the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, CA, where she worked on projects that utilized environmental prevention strategies to reduce alcohol-related problems in ethnic-minority communities and on college campuses. Her current research focuses on the mechanisms by which the substance use environment (e.g., alcohol outlet density) interacts with parental substance use behaviors to result in perpetration of child abuse and neglect and how social service availability and accessibility may reduce maltreatment.
Dr. Alfreda Iglehart, Policy Director, is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Social Welfare at UCLA’s School of Public Affairs. Dr. Iglehart received her MA in Sociology and Ph.D. in Social Work and Sociology from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Iglehart’s research centers on the effects of changing social policies on social service delivery systems, service delivery processes, and diverse communities. She is investigating the quality of life of individuals after they have aged out of foster care, especially as it relates to the current policy dilemma surrounding implementation of mandated programs and services that effectively support the successful transition to adulthood.
Her research also addresses the history and development of non-clinical social work that includes social work practice in organizations, communities, and policy settings. As part of this focus, she is studying the organization, structure, and service delivery patterns of community-based agencies; inter-agency cooperation; and the development and effectiveness of collaboratives. She seeks to identify those policies and practices that facilitate inter-organizational relationships.
Affiliated Faculty:
Dr. Michael A. Stoll is Professor and Chair of Public Policy in the School of Public Affairs, and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Urban Planning and a BS in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley. He also served as a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City. His main research interests include the study of urban poverty and inequality, specifically the interplay of labor markets, race/ethnicity, geography and policy.
Dr. Stoll’s published work includes an examination of the labor market difficulties of less-skilled workers, in particular the role that racial residential segregation, job location patterns, job skill demands, employer discrimination, job competition, transportation and job information play in limiting employment opportunities. Much of this work has been featured in a variety of media outlets including NPR, PBS, ABC Chicago Talk Radio, the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York Times, among other outlets.
Currently, Dr. Stoll is working on major research projects that examine the labor market consequences of mass incarceration, the benefits and costs of the prison boom, the reasons for the prison boom in the U.S., the social and economic consequences of urban sprawl, and the sources and consequences of differences in auto insurance premiums and traffic patterns within metropolitan areas.
Miriam Aroni Krinsky, JD is a Lecturer at the UCLA School of Public Policy and also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Loyola Law School. Ms. Krinsky currently sits on the ABA Youth at Risk Commission, the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Foster Care, will be joining the California Judicial Council (the leadership body for the judicial branch) in Fall 2009, and has been involved over time in numerous federal, state and local policy groups addressing issues impacting dependent youth and the courts. She has lectured nationwide and testified extensively before legislative, governmental and judicial bodies on issues relating to children at risk, the criminal justice system, and sentencing and appellate court policies and has authored over 50 articles on foster care and juvenile justice issues.
Ms. Krinsky previously served as the Executive Director of the Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization that represents over 20,000 abused and neglected youth in Los Angeles and as a Special Consultant on Policy and Reform Initiatives for the statewide California Judicial Council. She served over time asPresident of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, on the Los Angeles City EthicsCommission, and in various other local, statewide, and national policy bodies.
