BALTIMORE — When President Joe Biden visits Baltimore on Thursday, he is expected to pitch and outline his legislative agenda that evening at a CNN Town Hall, and faculty are available to provide context and expertise on child care policy, affordable housing, public housing, homelessness, elder care policy and early childhood educational achievement.
As part of the , the School of Social Work faculty offer world class expertise and insight into solutions for real world issues facing families throughout Maryland.
Margo Candelaria, PhD, Co-director of the Parent Infant Early Childhood Program at and Research Associate Professor and Research Director
Candelaria can speak to early childhood systems and child care policy. She has a long history of conducting research with young children and families at risk including premature infants, drug exposed infants, families in poverty, attachment and parenting concerns, and those struggling with early childhood mental health challenges. Candelaria is also a licensed developmental psychologist with extensive experience with parenting, early childhood mental health, evidence based interventions, and medically complex children.
Expertise includes:
- Family poverty
- Early childhood mental health
- Early childhood systems
Kate Sweeney, MSW, LCSW-C, Co-Director of the Parent, Infant and Early Childhood Program, The Institute for Innovation & Implementation
Sweeney can speak to child care program and policy work for early childhood. Sweeney oversees program and policy work for the Institute's early childhood projects. She is a current Zero to Three Fellow as well as a National Trainer of the Fussy Baby Network and previously served as lead trainer for Maryland’s Race to the Top and Project LAUNCH workforce developmental grants, training primary care providers, mental health consultants, and home visitors on trauma-informed, family-focused infant mental health competencies throughout the state.
Expertise includes:
- Infant and early childhood mental health
- Maternal mental health
- Public health policy
- Program Development/Direct Service
Joan Davitt, PhD, MSW, MLSP, Associate Professor & Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar; Chair of Aging Specialization; Academic Coordinator MSW/MPP Dual Degree
Davitt, who is based in the Philadelphia area, can discuss the home care system for the elderly and the president’s plans to increase wages of home care workers, allowing more adult children of elderly parents to remain in the work force.
Her areas of expertise include:
- Aging
- Home Care
- Medicare Policy
- Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Home Health Care
Note: Davitt only has two availability windows on Friday for either phone or Zoom interviews. Can be made available Saturday.
Samuel B. Little, PhD, MSW, Associate Dean of Clinical Field Education
Little can discuss affordable housing and public housing policy and reform, capacity building programs to provide pathways to homeownership and an active project called Hope Village in Baltimore that plans to create first-time homeownership to residents who were previously homeless and how University of Maryland School of Social Work graduate interns will assist these families. He has previously served as deputy executive director for the Philadelphia Housing Authority, director of resident services for the District of Columbia Housing Authority and Associate Deputy Director of the Housing Authority of Baltimore City.
His areas of expertise include:
- Public housing policy and regulatory reform
- Affordable housing policy
- Homeownership pathway programs
Corey Shdaimah, LLM, PhD, Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor of Social Justice, Academic Coordinator for the MSW/JD & MSW/MPP Dual Degree Programs
Shdaimah can discuss U.S. child care policy, child care accessibility and affordability, and impacts of expanding investment into universal pre-school on families.
Shdaimah is the author, with Adelphi University Professor Elizabeth Palley of and is the recipient of a 2021 grant from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, together with Professor Palley (Adelphi) and Professor Bwekia Steen (George Mason University) in Collaboration with the Virginia Department of Education to study the challenges facing home-based child care providers.
Her relevant areas of expertise include:
- Child care policy
- Dependency court reform
About the University of Maryland School of Social Work
The University of Maryland School of Social Work, founded in 1961, is highly ranked and respected. Its mission is to develop practitioners, leaders, and scholars to advance the well-being of populations and communities and to promote social justice. As national leaders, they create and use knowledge for education, service innovation, and policy development.
About the University of Maryland, Baltimore
The was founded in 1807 as the Maryland College of Medicine, which now stands as the nation’s oldest public medical school. In response to growing social and cultural needs, UMB’s mission has evolved and grown tremendously. Widely recognized as a preeminent institution, UMB serves as the academic health, law, and social work university of the USM, and is guided by a mission of excellence in education, research, clinical care, and public service.
UMB is a thriving academic health center combining cutting-edge biomedical research, exceptional patient care, and nationally ranked academic programs. With extramural funding totaling $687.7 million in FY 2020, each tenured/tenure-track faculty member generates an average of $1.47 million in research grants each year. The 2,921 faculty members conduct leading-edge research and develop solutions and technologies that impact human health locally and around the world. World-class facilities and cores, as well as interprofessional centers and institutes, allow faculty to investigate pressing questions in a highly collaborative fashion. As a result, the more than 7,400 students, postdocs, and trainees directly benefit from working and learning alongside leading experts as they push the boundaries of their fields. For a listing of the organized research centers and institutes, visit:
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