The University of Chicago

Kathryn Bocanegra, A.M., LCSW, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at UIC. She is Senior Advisor to the Attorney General of Illinois providing oversight on crime victim and violence prevention services. Dr. Bocanegra is a former post-doctoral fellow at Loyola University of Chicago’s Center for Criminal Justice Research, Policy and Practice. She received her PhD in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago. Her research includes both quantitative and qualitative research on community violence prevention, community corrections, assisting crime victims, and behavioral health services for forensic populations.

Rachel Garthe, MS, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois School of Social Work. She earned a BA in Psychology from North Central College and a MS and PhD in Developmental Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Garthe completed two years of post-doctoral training at the Chicago Center for Youth Violence Prevention at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Her research examines the etiology and prevention of youth violence in peer and romantic relationships within high-burden urban communities.

Sadiq Patel, PhD, MS, MSW, is an NIMH Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University School of Medicine. He received his PhD in Social Work and MS in Biostatistics from the University of Chicago and MSW from the University of Michigan. His research integrates statistical, geospatial, and data science methods to examine health outcomes and health care policy among underserved populations. 

Samantha Guz is a doctoral student at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago. Her research interests include school social work, public education policy and politics, holistic family and adolescent wellbeing, gendered Whiteness, as well as critical feminist research and practice. Her current work is focused on alternative high schools and gendered Whiteness within the profession of social work. 

Constance Hull is a master’s student at the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Her research interests include the effects of criminal legal reform policies, system coordination to deliver a continuum of community-based care, and the criminalization of youth. In addition to her work with SDP, Constance interns at the Federal Defender Program for the Northern District of Illinois and works as a policy associate in the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute. She holds a BA in Psychology and BA in Public Policy from William & Mary.

Alexa Cinque is a first-year master’s student at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Her research interests include leveraging the expertise of community stakeholders through qualitative and participatory methods to transform the criminal legal system through both policy and community-based solutions. Prior to her work with SDP, she was a Research Associate at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office working on policy reform and community engagement.  

Brianna Suslovic is a doctoral student at the Crown Family School, studying legal and forensic social work interventions in U.S. court systems. Prior to starting at University of Chicago, Brianna was a court-based social worker at a public defender’s office and a mental health provider for individuals who were court-involved or on probation/parole. She earned her MSW from Smith College School for Social Work and her AB from Harvard College.

Emily Claypool, A.M., is a doctoral student who is interested in deinstitutionalization, clinical interventions as well as the social life and historical emergence of evidence-based practices and programs. Thinking about power, control and scientific discourse, her research draws from the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS).