People

 

	Dr. Brianne Kothari is an Assistant Professor in the Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS) program at Oregon State University-Cascades. She conducts research to understand the multifaceted concept of well-being among children, youth and families. She also examines factors that promote well-being and resilience, particularly among at-risk populations such as children and youth in foster care. She utilizes her background in human development and social work and social research to explore the experiences, relationships, and contexts that lead to improved well-being. Dr. Kothari is passionate about utilizing evidence to more effectively serve children and families, and developing and evaluating preventive intervention programs designed to best meet their diverse needs. She thoroughly enjoys working with undergraduate and graduate students and regularly participates in activities with community partners with similar goals.
	Bethany Godlewski is a PhD candidate in the Human Development and Family Studies program at Oregon State University whose research focuses on how children influence the development of their parents and siblings, and culturally responsive approaches to interventions. For example, children indirectly influence development by tying parents to specific institutions such as schools, or directly influence through agentic actions inside of parent-child or sibling-sibling relationships. Her dissertation asks whether students in elementary schools serving high risk neighborhoods are carriers of program effects from a social and emotional learning school intervention to their home environments. For 2CW, Bethany’s interests are how sibling co-placement can help youth be academically and behaviorally resilient, and whether interventions can fortify positive sibling relationships through social and emotional skill building.
	Jamie Jaramillo is a graduate student in Human Development and Family Sciences at Oregon State University. She researches children and youth growing up in adversity that is created by social inequalities. This may take the form of poverty, racial and ethnic minority status, or foster care involvement. Her goal is to promote the resilience and positive development of disadvantaged youth by focusing on their relationships and mental health.
	Jessica Dahlgren is a doctoral student in the Human Development and Family Studies program at Oregon State University. Jessica’s research focuses on children that have an incarcerated parent and these children’s potential barriers to academic achievement in the formal school setting.  Beyond her academic work, Jessica serves on various committees that work in the community, specifically Clackamas County, to bring awareness to the heterogeneity of the population of children with incarcerated parents and the special needs they may have.  Jessica’s passion for the well-being of at-risk children motivates her to continue researching and engaging with such a unique community.
	Kylee Probert is a graduate student in the Human Development and Family Studies Program at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. Broadly, her research interests aim to explore relationships between foster parents and their foster children, particularly for at-risk or vulnerable youth groups. This research will aim to promote quality relationships, parenting efficacy, and placement stability for foster populations. Kylee’s interest in this work stems from personal experience with foster families including her own. With 2CW, Kylee hopes to probe further these relationships, by examining how experience, training, and communication with caseworkers can help promote well-being and positive relationships for parent and child alike.
	Nicole Mullican is a PhD student in Human Development and Family Studies at Oregon State University. Nicole earned a Master’s in Child and Family Studies from the University of Tennessee, where her interest in child welfare first began. Nicole’s research interests broadly include foster parent education and child well-being. Her current research interests focus on the ways in which foster parent training can be improved to best support the needs of foster families. With 2CW, it is Nicole’s goal to further investigate these topics in order to provide direction to agencies as they work to improve services for foster families.
	Erin Qadir
	Meah Cukrov is graduated in June, 2018 with a Bachelor’s in Human Development and Family Sciences from OSU-Cascades. She became interested in research after taking Applied Research Methods. She was fascinated with the many ways research shapes policy, laws and the world around us. Meah’s research interests include adult populations who experience limited protective factors as well as women/girls of all ages with eating disorders. She is a first generation college student and is exploring graduate programs.  During her undergraduate degree Meah completed her internship at TRACEs and is now working as the Measures Project Coordinator.  She collaborates with 2CW researchers focused on measuring resilience-promoting factors in the community.  In her spare time, Meah enjoys hanging out with her cat, thinking cats are really rad animals, coloring her hair various shades of the rainbow and spending time with her friends.
	Noël Diers is a freshman at OSU-Cascades majoring in Human Development and Family Sciences. Since  she was a little kid she has always had a heart for those in foster care. She wants to continue to learn throughout her college experience and pursue a career that would help families in the foster care system. She recently was awarded the URSA Engage award. This award allows her to focus her current efforts with 2CW on a project called Foster-Community-Connect, a site that will help connect families in the foster care system to people in the community who can provide needed resources.
	Colton Hemenway is HDFS major at OSU-Cascades currently in his senior year. Originally from Madras, Oregon, Colton has spent the last 3 years in Bend. During his time at Oregon State, he was eager to become more involved with research focus on individuals and families. As a result, Colton applied for and received the Laymen Fellowship offered to undergraduate students. He is currently studying resiliency among children in the welfare system. Colton hopes to be admitted to Portland State University’s Master of Social Work (MSW) program in fall of 2020.