Vivian Mills

Vivian Mills, PhD, MSW is the assistant director of Professional Development and Worker Wellbeing Research and Evaluation at the Florida Institute for Child Welfare (FICW) and a research faculty member at the College of Social Work. Prior to this position, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the FICW, and the Institute for Quality Children’s Services housed within Florida State University’s College of Social Work. Dr. Mills developed her passion to co-parent with families working towards reunification through her experiences as a foster and adoptive parent. Her areas of research focus on parental coping behaviors during catastrophic events and the engagement of biological parents in the child welfare system. She has a strong desire to effect positive change in child welfare policy and she hopes her research will help families involved in the system. Dr. Mills has worked as an outpatient mental health therapist in addition to being an elementary and middle school teacher. However, her most important role is being a mom to five children and two cats.