Justin Lerner earned a PhD in social welfare at New York University Silver School of Social Work. His dissertation examined health care utilization among transgender people in the 2015 United States Trans Suvey. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from New York University, an MSW from Washington University in St. Louis and a BA in psychology from Washington University.

Ryan Petros’s research activities seek to promote recovery and wellness for people with psychiatric disabilities and co-occurring substance use disorders. His work prioritizes a deep understanding of recovery, fosters personalized self-management strategies, and supports the development and adoption of recovery-oriented evidence-based practices. Both his research and teaching are informed by self-determination theory, empowerment practices, and critical theories to confront the impact of racism, sexism, and heterosexism in service provision and clinical training.

Jane Lee’s program of research focuses on reducing health disparities among racial and ethnic minority immigrant populations. She studies the unique role of migration-related processes in shaping health behaviors and identifies novel approaches to reach and engage immigrant groups. Her work explores questions of how, and why, migration-related processes affect communities unequally and is attentive to the interplay of multilevel factors that influence access to health services within and across diverse societies.

Danae Dotolo received her PhD in 2017 from the UW School of Social Work. She earned an MA in bioethics in 2014 from the UW School of Medicine and an MSW from Arizona State University.

Her research and teaching integrate her training in social work and bioethics with her policy and administrative social work practice experience. She has taught classes in social welfare policy; mezzo/macro practice; and the history and intellectual foundations of the social work profession. She also regularly lectures on ethics, research methods and theory.

Angelique Day received her PhD in interdisciplinary health science in 2011 from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. She earned an MSW from Michigan State University in 2005 and a BS summa cum laude in sociology/psychology from Central Michigan University.

Much of her research focuses on foster care youth, including examining the differences in college retention rates between foster care youth and other low-income first-generation college students, and examining “youth voice” and its impact on child welfare, education and health policy reform.

Jenn has dedicated more than 17 years to serving communities nationally and internationally in the nonprofit, public service and private sectors. She’s used her lived experience and direct service experience to focus on systemic change within the affordable housing, homelessness, youth empowerment and gender-based violence fields. In 2020, Jenn decided to expand her love for connecting people to the place they call 'home' by becoming a licensed Realtor and equity-based procurement and fundraising consultant.  

Valli Kalei Kanuha was born and raised in a rural town in Hawaiʻi in the 1950s. She is the daughter of a Native Hawaiian father and Nisei mother. Dr. Kanuha considers herself a critical, indigenous, feminist, activist-practitioner scholar with a focus on gender violence against women and children, and the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender and sexual identity. For the past 45 years, she has worked as a community-based researcher and consultant with organizations in Hawaiʻi and the continental U.S., and lectures widely on violence against women and social justice issues.