Launched in October 2024 as part of a $17 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), StARS brings together organizations and universities from around the country — including UNC’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research — to support states in evaluating and enhancing their plans for dementia-related care.
School of Social Work Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development Sheryl Zimmerman runs a research study funded by the National Institute on Aging to evaluate a training program developed by the Alzheimer’s Association that has vastly extended the access of online training to direct care staff.
Research Associate Professor Tonya Van Deinse has been collaborating with the North Carolina Specialty Mental Health Probation program since its inception in 2013. The national, evidence-informed approach to supervising people with serious mental illnesses now operates in 56 counties across the state.
School of Social Work Assistant Professor Rebecca Rebbe uses big data from big systems — including data from California’s Child Protective Services and Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego — to discover compelling levers for policy reforms that better protect children from maltreatment.
Since 1997, School of Social Work Research Professor Dean Duncan has been gathering and analyzing data for North Carolina’s Division of Social Services. He has linked big data sets to identify trends, locate outliers that indicate where the division might want to devote more resources, and to document the efficacy of an intervention.
Research by Associate Professor Sarah E. “Betsy” Bledsoe and Research Professor Virginia Strand at the School of Social Work suggests there is still more work to do in addressing trauma through an anti-racist, anti-oppressive lens.
Two UNC faculty members and a local community partner are pooling their expertise to take a hard look at the effects of structural racism on affordable housing in Durham and Orange counties.
Now leading an NIH-funded study with a research team from four universities and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Assistant Professor Bridgette Thom is working with young adult patients and survivors to co-create the financial literacy resources they need to prevent their medical debt and out-of-pocket expenses from upending their wellness and quality of life.
A research team led by Associate Professor Rainier Masa is pursuing how to reduce the impact of stigmas for HIV prevention and testing among Latino sexual minority men.
Research Assistant Professor Todd Jensen is leading an interview-based study of parents’ and caregivers’ strengths, challenges, transitions, and stages in their experiences raising children from birth through their 18th birthday.
