Susan Griffith, MSW, DSW
Dr Griffith is currently working on several research initiatives.

• “International Social Work Practice Models: Mixed-Method Analysis of Practice Representations of EU & US Entry-Level Social Work/Social Education Practitioners” Paper    submitted for presentation at 52nd Annual Program Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education, Feb 16-19, Chicago, IL, 2006
• “Faculty/Student/DCYF Collaborative Research: Family Centered Practice in Child Welfare: Do Workers Really Change?”    Paper to be presented at   23^rd Annual Conference of the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors Austin, Texas November 2-6, 2005
• International Social Work Practice: a Transatlantic Social Work Practice Model (TRANSPRAC). A US Department of Education and European Union Commission of Education (FIPSE) three-year funded project to exchange faculty and students from three US colleges and three EU colleges, and to build an international social work practice model 
• Social Revitalization in Smith Hill: oral history as a community assessment model. Providence College 2003/04  CAFR grant funded research investigation for the Smith Hill Development Corporation
• The Relation of Center-Based Day Care Quality to Attachment and Prosociability in Day Care Enrolled 2, 3, 4, and 5 year olds. Research conducted with the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families assessing the quality of day care in Rhode Island state licensed child day care centers.
• Child Day Care Services: Conflicting Values and Priorities for Child Development. Providence College CAFR grant funded research investigation for the Department of Children,Youth, and Families into all Rhode Island state licensed child day care centers assessing the relationships among Day Care Placement, Security, and Prosociability in 2, 3, 4, and 5 year olds.

Michael Hayes, MSW, PhD
Dr Hayes' current research initiatives include:

• “Preparing the Next Generation of Educators and Practitioners to ‘Think Developmentally”. Paper accepted for presentation at the Annual Program Meeting (APM) of the Council on Social Work Education , San Francisco, CA, October 27-30-2007
•    “Preparing Deliberative Practitioners: A Quasi-Experiment in the Exploration of Client Metaphors”, paper accepted for presentation at the Annual Program Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education , Paper accepted for presentation at the Annual Program Meeting (APM) of the Council on Social Work Education , San Francisco, CA, October 27-30-2007
• “Expanding the Borders of Intervention: An Experiment in the Utility of Exploring Clients’ Metaphors,” a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Social Work Association March 17, 2007, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• Bridging the Domains of Experience: Building Ties between Action in the Classroom and Practice". Paper accepted for presentation at the 24th Annual Conference of Baccalaureate Social Work program Directors, Los Angeles, CA, October 35-28, 2006.
• Community-based research with junior and senior major students and DCYF into effectiveness of Family-Centered Intake Initiative leading to report entitled “Community-Based Research: Building Ties between Academy and Agency, Family and Community”—Paper accepted for presentation at the 24^th  Annual Conference of the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors, Los Angeles, CA, October 25-28
• “Listening to the Voices of Aging-Out Youth”—Community-based research with junior and senior major students and Rhode Island Foster Parents Association into preparation and support of state-custody youth for emancipation. Paper in preparation.
• “Returning to our Roots in Chicago : Applications of Some Ideas of Jane Addams to Social Justice Work Today” Paper Presented at the 21^st Anniversary National Conference of the Social Welfare Action Alliance , Chicago , IL June 17, 2006
• “International Social Work Practice Models: Mixed-Method Analysis of Practice Representations of EU & US Entry-Level Social Work/Social Education Practitioners” Paper   submitted for presentation   at   52nd Annual Program Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education, Feb 16-19, Chicago, IL, 2006
• “Faculty/Student/DCYF Collaborative Research: Family Centered Practice in Child Welfare: Do Workers Really Change?”   Paper to be presented at   23^rd Annual Conference of the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors Austin, Texas November 2-6, 2005
• “Cultivating Practice Imagination” (part of ongoing research on the application of American Pragmatism to social work practice) Paper to be presented at 23^rd Annual Conference of the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors Austin, Texas November 2-6, 2005
• Preparation for presentation of findings of a study of the relationship between social workers' mental representations of a client and their performance of empathic tasks for presentation at The Society for Social Work Research Ninth Annual Conference, Miami, Florida, January 13-16, 2005.
• Drafting daycare research findings [Study of relationship between length of time in daycare, quality of daycare, attuned-ness of parenting, and children’s security & prosociability] with Dr. Griffith for presentation at 22nd Annual Conference of the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors, Detroit, Michigan November 3-7, 2004

Marian Mattison, MSW, DSW
Dr. Mattison is currently researching the role of Virtue Ethics as a foundation for resolving ethical dilemmas in social work practice.

• Mattison, M. 2006. Professional ethics codes: Applications to common
           ethical dilemmas.  In C. Franklin, M.B. Harris, &  P. Allen-Meares, (Eds),
            School social work and mental health workers training and resource
            manual. (Chapter 100). Oxford University Press.    

                   Practicing in school settings, social workers are likely to face some of
                   the more difficult and challenging ethical and legal dilemmas that are
                   rarely amenable to simple solutions.  Employed in secondary settings,
                   school social workers are obliged to establish collaborative partnerships
                   with colleagues not familiar with or bound by the values and principles
                   inherent in the NASW Code of Ethics. The expectations and demands
                   resulting from co-existing loyalties to student clients, students' parents,
                   teachers, administrators, other students, and the school system require
                   social workers to assume a variety of roles and results in conflicting
                   priorities. The challenges of working with minors, students intent on
                   harming others, addressing issues such as of drug use/misuse, violence,
                   sexuality, and suicide require school social workers to be not only
                   knowledgeable about professional standards specified in codes of ethics
                   but educated in strategies for resolving ethical dilemmas. In addition
                   to upholding the standards specified in the NASW Code of Ethics,
                   school social workers faced with ethical dilemmas must be familiar
                   with the codes of conduct regulating the practice of allied disciplines
                   and aware that the conflicting obligations required by other disciplines
                   may result in disparate courses of action.

• Margaret Roderick, MSW
  Professor Roderick's research initiatives are focused on coordinating the faculty's ongoing program assessment process.