AREAS OF RESEARCH
Mass Incarceration, Homelessness, Substance Use
SP2 Initiatives and Faculty focus applied research, psychosocial services, and person-centered approach to better understand how to recover and provide service to vulnerable populations.
Featured Centers
Center for Carceral Communities
Goldring Reentry Initiative

FEATURED FACULTY
Dennis P. Culhane, PhD
Professor; PhD, Boston College, 1990. Homelessness; housing policy; policy analysis research methods.

FEATURED FACULTY
Malitta Engstrom, PhD, LCSW
Associate Professor; PhD, Columbia University. Substance use and intersections with criminal justice system involvement, victimization, HIV, and mental health, particularly in relation to women across the life course and families; informing, developing, and testing interventions to address co-occurring concerns; enhancing the value of scientific findings for use in practice; multigenerational social work practice with families.
Related News
Faculty & Research
01/27

SP2 researchers recognized at Society for Social Work and Research conference
Researchers from Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2) were recognized for their leadership and scholarship at the 2023 Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work and Research […]
Student Life
01/11

Penn Today and upenn.edu spotlight SP2’s Social Justice Scholars Program
Now in its second year, the Social Justice Scholars Program at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) welcomed four scholars in 2022, offering a full-tuition scholarship, mentorship from […]
Alumni
05/17

Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Trust and Communication are Key
Currently, Johnna Marcus, MSW ’15, LICSW, works at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Division of Addiction Psychiatry in Boston. There, she serves as a social worker for patients in both […]