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Susan Stern

Degrees: 
Associate Professor Cross appointed Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing Ph.D., School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago
Email: 
Phone Number: 
(416) 946-8263
Office Location: 

Room 334

Research Interests: 
  • Parent engagement
  • Evidence-based parenting programs
  • Child and adolescent mental health and trauma
  • Family intervention
  • Implementation science
Biography: 

Susan Stern joined the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work in 2002 as an Associate Professor.  She previously was a faculty member at Boston University and the State University of New York at Albany.  Prior to entering academe, she was Director of Child, Youth, and Family Services in a community mental health center.  

Susan’s scholarship focuses on parent engagement; family adversity; child and adolescent mental health and delinquency; community-based implementation of evidence-based parenting and family therapy models; and common elements and change mechanisms in evidence-based practices. She has been Principal Investigator of a SSHRC funded program of research on parent engagement in children’s mental health and evidence-based practice; research associate on the longitudinal Rochester Youth Development Study funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; Co-Investigator of the IPS-C, the Canadian arm of an international survey on parenting practices and parent preferences for accessing support; and partnered with Kinark Child and Family Services on research examining treatment fidelity and the role of peer supervision across multiple EBPs in an implementation science study. With a particular expertise in evidence-based parenting interventions, she was PI of an Incredible Years multi-year implementation study across diverse Toronto early learning centres and consultant on research examining the impact and cultural acceptability of Triple P for Aboriginal parents in Canada. 

Committed to community collaborative and culturally and contextually responsive clinical research, Susan held a Research Scientist appointment with Child Development Institute, a collaborative partner on evidence-based parent engagement and parenting program research, and was the Inaugural Visiting Scholar for McSilver Institute of Poverty Policy and Research at New York University Silver School of Social Work. 

She brings a rich practice background to her research and teaching from children’s mental health and child welfare settings in urban environments. Dr. Stern is the Coordinator of the Children and Their Families Field of Practice and currently coordinates and teaches Social Work Practice with Families and Core Concepts of Child and Adolescent Trauma.