Pajarita Charles

Lab website: Lab for Family Wellbeing & Justice

Pajarita Charles, PhD, MSW, MPA, is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work. She completed her PhD in Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a joint master’s degree in social work and public administration at Columbia University. Her work focuses on the development, implementation, and testing of interventions to promote positive outcomes among families affected by the criminal legal system with particular attention to parents incarcerated in prisons and jails. Dr. Charles’ efforts include fostering research, practice, and public sector partnerships to build capacity for social justice and criminal legal system reform. She is Director of the Lab for Family Wellbeing & Justice and a Co-Leader of the national Promote Smart Decarceration network, part of the Grand Challenges for Social Work. She also frequently collaborates with local and state organizations to provide expertise and guidance on program and policy issues pertinent to justice-involved parents and their family members.