Human Development and Family Sciences

Morissa Henn, DrPH, Deputy Commissioner, NH Department of Health and Human Services

Topic: Firearm Safety and Suicide Prevention 

April 4, 2024 | 12:30-1:30 PM

Virtual Lecture

Morissa Henn serves as Deputy Commissioner at the NH Department of Health and Human Services, the State’s largest executive agency, which is guided by a mission “to join communities and families in providing opportunities for residents to achieve health and independence.” In this role, she leads cross-cutting strategic efforts to integrate policy and practice, with a focus on supporting NH’s most vulnerable individuals. She also oversees Hampstead Hospital and Residential Treatment Facility, the state-run psychiatric treatment facility for youth. Morissa was recently promoted from the role of Associate Commissioner, where her portfolio included the Division for Children, Youth, and Families the Division for Behavioral Health. With roles in New York and Utah in addition to New Hampshire, Morissa has spent the past 15 years working to try and put community needs and voices at the center of health and human service system policy and design.  

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“It’s not ignoring the code of conduct; it’s how do I help this child?”: Discipline Policies, Educator Mindsets, Discipline Decision-Making, and Disparities

Master’s Thesis Defense: “Exploring Staff Perceptions of SEL in the School-Based Diversion Initiative”

Human Development and Family Sciences

Pathways from Patient-Centered Communication to the Psychological and Physical Health of Cancer Survivors: The Potential Roles of Worry about Cancer Recurrence, Pessimism & Social Isolation

Human Development and Family Sciences - Long-term Outcomes of a Supportive Housing Program for Families in Child Welfare: A Matched Comparison Study

Lunch will be served. Please register below to join us.

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About the Workshop

In her presentation, Elizabeth Carpenter-Song draws upon longitudinal ethnographic research centered on housing precarity and mental health among families in rural New England. Over time, she observes oscillating rhythms of stability and instability within families as they face persistent threats to their housing security, grapple with making ends meet on service sector wages, and encounter isolation and stigma within rural communities. Carpenter-Song delves into the lived experiences of families navigating fundamental insecurity, contending that various factors unique to rural New England—such as limited affordable housing options, geographic and social isolation, and cultural ideals of self-sufficiency—converge to hinder families’ prospects despite their continuous efforts to thrive in this environment.

Against the backdrop of fundamental insecurity, families interact with a diverse array of health and social services to address their basic survival needs and promote their families’ well-being. Carpenter-Song examines the unintended repercussions of “parenting in public” (Friedman, 2000) within institutional settings, shedding light on how healthcare and social services can inadvertently contribute to surveillance and harm for impoverished parents. By attuning to families’ lived experiences, Carpenter-Song underscores anthropology’s capacity to elucidate experiences of hardship, document systemic shortcomings in supporting families, and propose avenues for substantive changes in both practice and policy.

About the Speaker

Elizabeth Carpenter-Song, Ph.D. is a medical and psychological anthropologist at Dartmouth College. Her research strives to center the lived experiences of rural community members marginalized by poverty, housing insecurity, mental illness, and substance use. Through ethnographic methods, she engages with people and communities to learn about lived experiences of illness, suffering, and experiences navigating through complex landscapes of care. In partnership with people with lived experience, direct service providers, and researchers, she aims to translate insights from close attention to families’ lived experiences in rural New England into actionable recommendations for change to improve health and wellbeing in the region.

Read Elizabeth Carpenter-Song’s open-source book Families on the Edge: Experiences of Homelessness and Care in Rural New England.

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Sponsors

This workshop is supported by the Research Program on Global Health & Human Rights at The Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute in collaboration with the Departments of Anthropology and Human Development & Family Sciences. 

Chelsea Singleton, Ph.D., Tulane University

“Exploring the Nutritional & Health Consequences of Violence in
Black Communities”

April 18, 2024 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM

Dr. Chelsea Singleton is a nutritional epidemiologist whose research examines the impact healthy food access has on food purchasing behavior, dietary intake, and chronic disease risk. The overarching goal of her research is to document and dismantle nutritional inequities affecting low-income populations and people of color in the U.S. Her recent work has primarily focused on describing the mechanisms by which structural racism and structural violence impede healthy eating in underserved communities. She has extensive experience working with nutrition assistance program participants (e.g., SNAP, WIC), and she primarily uses epidemiological, geo-spatial, and community-based participatory research methods to accomplish her research goals. Prior to joining the SBPS faculty, she was an Assistant Professor of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She completed a USDA-funded post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2018. In 2020, the National Institute on Minority Health & Health Disparities (NIH/NIMHD) awarded her a five-year K01 grant. Her K01 research aims to study the effects of community violence on food retail and food purchasing behavior in low-income African American communities. She is a proud Tulane and Xavier graduate! 

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Join In-Person: InCHIP, J. Ray Ryan Bldg., Fisher Colloquia Room, 1st Floor Lobby

Livestream via YouTube

In Recognition of Sexaul Assault Awareness Month

Chiara Sabina, Ph.D. Rutgers University

Topic: Sexual violence among Latinas

April 25, 2024 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM

Dr. Chiara Sabina is an associate professor at the School of Social Work at Rutgers University. Her research centers on interpersonal victimization, especially intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and dating violence among Latinos. Dr. Sabina employs a contextual, strengths-based perspective with respect to interpersonal violence focusing on understudied groups, the influence of cultural variables, help-seeking responses, and examination of the service-delivery system. Dr. Sabina has received grants from the Fulbright Scholar Program, National Institute of Justice, Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, Vision of Hope, and National Sexual Violence Resource Center to conduct her work on Latino victimization, victim needs, violence prevention, domestic violence services, and culturally-informed services. Dr. Sabina is Senior Consulting Editor for Psychology of Violence and is a member of the Research Advisory Board of the National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities.

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Watch the livestream

Human Development and Family Sciences - “The Role of Religion in Sexual and Gender Diverse Youth and Young Adults’ Lives”