The Council on Social Work Education selected Assistant Professor Jessica Pac as the recipient of the Early Career Award in Child Welfare for her contributions to the field of child welfare and to social work.
Since joining the faculty in 2019, Dr. Pac has had a profound impact on child welfare policy and education. She has published 17 peer-reviewed journal articles in high-impact journals; secured more than $6 million in extramural funding for projects on prenatal opioid exposure, foster care, the Child Tax Credit, and machine learning approaches to child maltreatment risk; co-chaired or served on numerous dissertation committees, advised doctoral and undergraduate students, and integrated students into her research teams; and innovated the child care curriculum. Her students describe her teaching as “brilliant and passionate,” with one noting: “I will walk away a better social worker, community member, and human.”
“Dr. Pac has not only built an outstanding record of scholarship, teaching, and service, but she has also altered the trajectory of the field itself,” said Professor and Director Marci Ybarra. “States are already drawing on her findings, such as proposals to eliminate child support cost-recovery orders for foster families, and national organizations increasingly seek out her expertise. This is not incremental work. It is redefining child maltreatment prevention and equity in child welfare.”
The notion that inequalities in infancy drive adulthood disparities motivates Dr. Pac’s work. Her research harnesses applied econometric and data science methods to provide novel insight on the effects of antipoverty and work-family policy supports on maternal employment, safety, and health, and infant and child safety and health.
The Council on Social Work Education is the national association representing social work education in the United States and is the exclusive accrediting body for social work education in the United States.
Congratulations, Dr. Pac!