Doctoral candidate Leah Cheatham to join University of Alabama faculty

I am both thrilled and honored to be joining the faculty at the University of Alabama School of Social Work. I was drawn to the University of Alabama because of my interests in working within a public university with strong community ties, excellent support for research, and a strong commitment to students. The warm reception from faculty, staff, and students during my visit to Tuscaloosa sealed the deal. I feel so fortunate to be joining such a kind group of individuals who are doing such incredible work within (and beyond) the School of Social Work at Alabama.

 While I am still engaged in my dissertation research, I do believe that this research helped to prepare me for the Assistant Professor position at the University of Alabama. My dissertation is entitled, “Aging Out of Foster Care with Disabilities: Predictors of Educational Attainment and Employment” (Chair: Karen Randolph, PhD). My dissertation research serves as a preliminary inquiry into larger questions about the best ways to serve youth with disabilities throughout the child welfare system. Given the University of Alabama School of Social Work’s strengths in the area of child welfare, my research agenda seems to fit easily into the School’s larger mission. Furthermore, the University is home to the Alabama Disability Advocacy Program (ADAP), a legal advocacy organization that has been instrumental in spurring reform necessitated to appropriately accommodate youth with disabilities within the Alabama child welfare system. I hope that my dissertation work, examining the experiences of youth with disabilities in the child welfare system, has prepared me to take full advantage of the opportunity to explore collaborations with this program, as well as other community programs in and around the University, with the aim to increase opportunities for youth who are or have been involved with the child welfare system.

Upon starting at Alabama in the fall, I plan to extend and strengthen my dissertation work by analyzing a third wave of the National Youth in Transition Data (scheduled for release in 2016), providing a longitudinal examination of youth aging out between ages 17 and 21. Informed by this work, I aim to pursue community-based participatory research as a means of developing and testing support services for youth aging out with disabilities. In the spirit of “nothing about us without us,” a method involving community engagement will be necessary to solicit extensive information about the utility and quality of the services received by youth with disabilities in the Alabama child welfare system. Partnering with the Alabama Department of Human Resources as well as the Alabama Disability Advocacy Program (ADAP), I will use both qualitative methods (i.e., assessing service needs through interviews with staff and caregivers, foster youth, and former foster youth—including youth who may find themselves homeless upon aging out) and quantitative methods (analyzing differences among Alabama youth receiving experimental and status-quo services) to highlight the unique perspectives and experiences of these youth as they exit the child welfare system and translate these experiences into tailored support services for youth aging out with disabilities.

Leah P. Cheatham, JD, MSW
Doris Duke Fellow for the Promotion of Child Well-being, Chapin Hall, University of Chicago
Doctoral Candidate, College of Social Work, Florida State University
lpc2891@my.fsu.edu