 Brenda Amedee, LMSW, began working at The Center for Child and Family Studies, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina, as a contract trainer in the 1990s. She trained on topics including alcohol and other drug abuse, foster home licensing, Life Book for adoption, adolescent growth and development, and advanced child maltreatment. She is currently employed as Training and Development Director involved in the training and development of curricula for foster care and adoption workers as well as foster care/adoptive parents. Brenda’s 15 years of experience in the social work field includes economic services, child protective services, foster care, and interstate compact. She is also a certified adoption investigator. Brenda received both a bachelor of arts degree in Journalism and a master of Social Work degree from the University of South Carolina.
 Christine G. Wallace is currently the Director of Training at The Center for Child and Family Studies. In this role, Mrs. Wallace promotes the center’s guided principal by supporting the idea of lifelong learning. She manages all training related activities to include the development of curricula and delivery of trainings that are tailored to meet the needs of various human service organizations.
Mrs. Wallace is a nationally certified training facilitator and an advocate for children services. She serves on numerous state boards and commissions including the Board of Directors for Interfaith Community Services. She has worked diligently since 1989 with various child-servicing agencies in an effort to address the various needs of children and families in South Carolina. Mrs. Wallace received both her BS and MS in Criminal Justice from the University of South Carolina.
 Cynthia Flynn is currently the Interim Associate Director of The Center for Child and Family Studies, as well as the Assistant Director of The Research and Evaluation Division. In this capacity, she coordinates all research, evaluation, and community projects conducted by Center staff and faculty. Cynthia has a Ph.D. in education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has 30 years of experience working in human service and education programs. Dr. Flynn has conducted research studies in the child welfare field including adoption, education of foster youth, and foster youth placement and has conducted numerous program evaluations in a variety of contexts. She has used both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques to analyze findings.
 Dana DeHart, a Research Associate Professor at The Center for Child & Family Studies, has been Principal Investigator on over $3.5 million in grants and contracts. Her specialty area is violence and victimization, particularly women’s crime, domestic abuse, and service responses. She has conducted research on incarcerated women and girls, battered women’s recovery, batterer treatment, psychological abuse, intimate homicide, and service use among ethnic and sexual minorities. Dr. DeHart has expertise in needs assessment, program evaluation, scale design, and ethical research design. She is experienced in a range of qualitative and quantitative community-engaged research and enjoys exploring innovative methodologies. She serves on state and national workgroups, is a peer reviewer for leading psychological journals, has authored book chapters, and has published in Violence Against Women, Violence & Victims, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Journal of Family Violence, Women & Health, Journal of Correctional Health Care, Child & Youth Social Work Journal, Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, Journal of Death & Dying, and Journal of Sex Research, among others.
Links to representative projects and reports follow:
Vita
Donna L. Privette is a training development director at The Center for Child and Family Studies, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina. In this position, she develops curricula and presents training in responding to victims of crime, particularly victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. She also trains social services caseworkers to work with mandated clients. Ms. Privette received her master of social work in 1988 from the University of South Carolina. She worked as a planner for the South Carolina Department of Social Services and served as the executive director of a private, nonprofit agency, serving victims of sexual assault for nine years prior to joining The Center for Child and Family Studies in 1998.
Vita
Hattie Greene is a Training Development Director and Trainer at The Center for Child and Family Studies. She earned master’s degrees in social work and public health from the University of South Carolina. Her history with the organization includes six years of child protective services and TANF trainings. For the past two years she has also developed curricula for these two programs. She has presented national and local workshops on the subjects of staff training and child welfare issues. Her 18 years of work experience in child welfare include social service administration, child abuse/neglect investigation, case management, abuse education/prevention, mentoring, and domestic violence intervention.
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Jackie Gilles is the Administrative Coordinator of The Center for Child and Family Studies, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina. Jackie attended business school in Seattle and has over 40 years of office management experience in business, nonprofit, and academic settings. Currently she is assistant to the director of The Center, personnel manager, and facility manager, and she performs executive administrative duties for The Center.
Janel is the program manager for the South Carolina Professional Development Consortium. Janel was previously employed at the Children’s Law Center where she developed training curricula and materials for child protection and legal staff on implementation of the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act (MEPA) and related law and policy. She has also conducted training programs on the application of MEPA. Janel’s 15 years of experience in child welfare and social work includes adoptions, foster care, group home administration, and sexual trauma counseling. Additionally, she is a certified adoption investigator and volunteers as a teen mentor. Janel received a Bachelor of Social Work degree from Winthrop University in 1994 and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of South Carolina in 1998.
 Jennifer Reid Webb, MA, has worked at The Center for Child and Family Studies since 2002. She has been the head writer on a variety of projects, including training curricula, grants, reports, press releases, brochures, and Web text. She has also been involved in program design, development, and support. She has written curricula in the areas of child protective services, foster care, adoptions, economic services, adult protective services, and end of life care. She completed her bachelor’s degree in English and history at Presbyterian College and her master’s degree in English at the University of South Carolina.
Vita
 John Allen is an Information Resource Consultant II with The Center for Child and Family Studies. Prior to state service, John was in the private sector for fifteen years where he handled technical support, case analysis/research, consultations, internet marketing, web design, and Content Management Systems (CMS). John is The Center's Web Administrator and is a member of the College of Social Work's Information Technology staff. He develops websites and manages our IT assets. He also supports e-learning as the Moodle Administrator and assists with multimedia and video production. John's interests include art, music, travel, history as well as video editing, the web, and graphic design.
Judy Bauer is an administrative assistant in the research, planning, and evaluation division at The Center for Child and Family Studies, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina. In this capacity, she performs all administrative tasks for the daily business operation of the division. Her areas of expertise include accounting/travel, data entry, transcribing, word processing, and correspondence. She has seventeen years experience in administrative duties at the University of South Carolina and six years in the private sector. She completed a course in Secretarial Science at Harbarger School of Business in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Loretta Davis, B.A., is an Administrative Assistant at The Center for Child and Family Studies, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina, where she provides administrative support to the Training Division and is the Administrative Assistant for Training for Foster and Adoptive Parents (TFAP). Ms. Davis provides training registration customer service assistance, online registration website maintenance and training database maintenance; assists with training materials preparations; and, provides division support as needed. She has over ten years experience in the private sector and twelve years experience in state government and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina College of Liberal Arts and the Katharine Gibbs School.
 Margaret Marter, Conference Manager at The Center for Child and Family Studies, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina, manages the logistics for conferences offered to DSS supervisors and workers throughout the state. She received her bachelor’s degree in English/Business Administration from the University of South Carolina and is currently working toward a master of education degree in higher education administration.
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Monique B. Mitchell, PhD, CT, is a Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Child and Family Studies. Dr. Mitchell is the South Carolina Research Director for the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) federal data collection. Her research specialties include the experiences of children and youth in foster care, life transitions, ambiguity, stress, loss, and coping, social support, cognitive appraisals, and spirituality. Her specific expertise involves informing policy using child-centered research, consulting invested parties in the child welfare system, and designing and developing youth workshops, resource kits, and learning programs that serve children at risk, children in alternative care, and children in need. Dr. Mitchell is certified in thanatology, specializing in bereavement counseling. She is experienced in qualitative and quantitative research, with expertise in hermeneutic phenomenological research. Findings from her most recent research, The Transitioning into Care Project: Honouring Children’s Lived Experience of the Foster Care Transition, have been published in Child and Family Social Work and Children and Youth Services Review. Dr. Mitchell received bachelor degrees in Anthropology and Psychology from the University of Western Ontario, a master’s degree in Capacity Building from the University of Guelph, and a PhD in Family Relations and Human Development (with a specialization in child and adolescent development) at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
Sheila Lilly is the administrative assistant for the Education and Community Initiatives Division at The Center for Child and Family Studies, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina. In this capacity, she performs all administrative tasks for the daily business operation of the division. Her areas of expertise include accounting/travel, data entry, word processing, desktop publishing, and Web-page design. She has 17 years’ administrative experience at the University of South Carolina and seventeen years’ experience in the federal government and private sector.
 Stephany Smith recently began her tenure with The Center for Child and Family Studies after working several years in the hospitality industry. Upon receiving her undergraduate degree in Sport and Entertainment Management from the University of South Carolina, she worked for the Los Angeles Dodgers as an Inside Sales Account Executive. In that capacity, she provided full sales and services to new business development clients. Following her tenure with the Dodgers, she was a Corporate Recruiter for a national human resources placement firm. Miss Smith is integrating her extensive hospitality and marketing experiences as The Center's Jr. Conference Assistant.
Suzanne Sutphin is a Research Assistant Professor in the Research, Evaluation, and Emerging Community Issues Division. She has a diverse background in research methods including survey research, document analysis, and experimental social psychology. Dr. Sutphin received bachelor degrees in International Studies and Sociology from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master’s degree in Sociology from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of South Carolina.
 Teresa Butkus, MSW, LCSW, LISW, is a licensed clinical social worker in South Carolina and Virginia. She has a diverse background in social work having worked on the Forensic Unit at New Hampshire State Hospital, as a Day Care Director on a Maine island, and as a caseworker and supervisor in a regional adoption unit in Maine. After receiving her MSW degree at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, in 1989, Teresa worked as a community mental health therapist with children and families and in an infant early intervention program. She joined the staff of The Center for Child and Family Studies in 1997 and has worked with the Elementary School Counseling Demonstration Program in Allendale County, the DSS/MSW Child Welfare Leadership Project, the HABLA Project, and the Child Welfare Traineeship project.
Vita
Toni Jones is a research associate in the Division of Research, Planning, and Evaluation at The Center, where she evaluates community programs, conducts literature reviews and demographic data searches, and collaborates with community partners in developing proposals for responding to funding opportunities. She is currently evaluating the Columbia Housing Authority’s Hope VI neighborhood revitalization project for the former public housing site known as Hendley Homes and is providing consultation and technical assistance for a research project being conducted by the University of North Carolina to study on-the-job safety of youth workers. In the past, she has worked as a grant writer and advocate with Dorchester School District 4 and as an intern at Protection and Advocacy for People with Disabilities. She also has 14 years of experience working with the homeless population as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, Caritas, and various shelters in the community. Ms. Jones received the master of social work degree from the University of South Carolina with a focus on public policy, advocacy, and program development.
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