Jessica Pryce is a research faculty member and works directly with child welfare leaders through the Florida Institute for Child Welfare on organizational change through the Alliance for Workforce Enhancement under the institute’s GROW Center. She previously served as the institute's director from 2017 to early 2023. An alumna of the College of Social Work and a Florida native, she completed her MSW in 2009 and worked as a child protective investigator with DCF before transitioning to Washington, D.C. to pursue her doctorate degree from Howard University. She also serves on the advisory board for the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute, which specializes in the ongoing development of child welfare organizations across the country.

AREAS OF FOCUS

• Child Welfare
• Family Social Work
• Race/ Ethnicity

EDUCATION

• PhD, Howard University, Social Work
• MSW, Florida State University, Social Work (Child Welfare)
• BA, Florida Southern College, Sociology & Criminology

SELECTED PEER REVIEW ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS

Pryce, J. (2018). The long history of Separating Families in the US and how the trauma lingers. https://theconversation.com/the-long-history-of-separating-families-in-the-us-and-how-the-trauma-lingers-98616

Pryce, J., Lee, W., Sellati, E., Park, D. McCarthy, M., & Owens, G. (2018). A Case Study in Public Child Welfare: Promising Practices that Lower Racial Disparity in Foster Care Placement. Journal of Public Child Welfare. https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2018.1467354.

Pryce, J. & Briar-Lawson, K. (2016). Child Welfare Reform. St. Paul, MN: Center for Advanced Studies In Child Welfare, University, Minnesota.

Zlotnik, J.L., & Pryce, J. (2014). Status of the Use of Title IV-E Funding in BSW and MSW Programs. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 7(4), 430-446.