Miriam Landsman is Executive Director of the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice and Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Iowa. Dr. Landsman’s primary areas of research are family centered approaches to child welfare practice and the child welfare workforce.

Brad Richardson is Research Scientist/Engineer and Adjunct Associate Professor in The University of Iowa School of Social Work. As Research Director of the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice, he also serves as co-Director of the Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation and is Coordinator of the DMC Resource Center and Minority Youth and Families Initiative.

As Program Coordinator at the National Resource Center, Stephanie Besch is the local site coordinator for the Safe Babies Court Team in Polk County, Iowa, a demonstration site for the Infant and Toddler Court Team program of Zero to Three funded by the Health Resources Services Administration.

Debbie Black is Office Manager at the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice. Ms. Black has been at the Resource Center for more than 30 years and works on a wide range of projects, in addition to managing office staff and serving as fiscal manager for the Center.

Elisa Childs, MSW, LCSW, is a Research Assistant for the National Resource Center in the Center for Public Health Evaluation and Research. Her work at the NRC focuses on health promotion and disease prevention, namely around Alzheimer’s Disease, cancer, and diabetes. Independent from the NRC, Elisa also conducts research on increasing health care access in rural areas, explicitly emphasizing medically underserved communities with high older adult populations.

As a Research Associate at the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice, Ms. Schueller works with the Polk County model Zero To Three program known as the Safe Babies Court Team and assists on projects within the Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation, Center for Public Health Evaluation and Research, and Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Resource Center. Ms. Schueller earned a Master’s in Social Work at the University of Iowa School of Social Work with a concentration in Community and Macro-Level Social Work and has more than five years of experience in evaluation, organizational planning, and direct service with individuals, families, and groups. Her previous work experience included dropout prevention, school systems planning, equity training in education settings, and building collaborative community partnerships to meet youth and family needs.

As  a Research Specialist at the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice.  Sarah’s research and evaluation focuses on chronic disease prevention, management, and health equity. She previously served as a Laboratory Manager/Research Assistant in the UI Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences studying bio-behavioral oncology.  She earned her Bachelors of Science in Microbiology and her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology at the University of Iowa.

Greg Gross (they/them) has been with the NRC since 2019 as a research associate. They completed a BA in Spanish and a BS in psychology at Drake University in 2003. They completed a master’s in social work at the University of Iowa in 2012. In addition to their part-time work as a research associate for the NRC, Greg was an adjunct instructor through the University of Iowa School of Social Work until 2019. Currently, Greg is a PhD student in Social Work at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Kseniya is a Research Assistant at the University of Iowa School of Social Work, Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation. Since 2013, under direct supervision Kseniya assisted on research projects primarily focusing on working with Spanish speaking program participants, involving recruitment of research participants. Kseniya is a multilingual professional who speaks English, Russian, and Spanish.

Xueying (Sherry) Gao, PhD, is a research associate in the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice/Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation. Dr. Gao earned a Ph.D. in Methodology, Measurement, and Analysis, and a Master of Arts in Research Methods Measurement and Evaluation. Her research focus on creating and validating psychological measures and quantitative methodologies for social science studies.

Kellee McCrory, MSW, MPH, is the Director of Training for the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice at the University of Iowa School of Social Work. She has extensive expertise in curriculum development, evaluation, survey development, project management, public health, child welfare, and substance abuse research and programs. Ms. McCrory is currently the program manager for the Iowa Peer Workforce Collaborative grant which provides training and continuing education to peers (people with lived experience with serious mental illness or substance use disorder who are living well in recovery) in Iowa and provides technical assistance and support to Iowa agencies and organizations to enhance the employment, hiring, and retention of Peer Support Specialists, Family Peer Support Specialists, and Peer Recovery Coaches. Prior to her position as Director of Training, Ms. McCrory was as assistant professor of social work at Mount Mercy University, teaching courses in social work practice, diversity, research methods, group theory and practice, foundation and advanced field, and grant writing. She has also taught social work research courses and lectured in public health at the University of Iowa.

Lauren Vorwald is the Training and Development Associate for the Iowa Peer Workforce Collaborative at the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice (NRCFCP) and a Certified Mental Health Peer Support Specialist (MHPSS). Prior to joining the NRCFCP, Lauren worked for the Iowa Peer & Family Peer Support Training Program within the University of Iowa Department of Pediatrics Division of Child and Community Health (UI-DCCH) in collaboration with Child Health Specialty Clinics (CHSC).