Pajarita Charles

Pajarita Charles, PhD, MSW, MPA, is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work, Director of the Lab for Family Wellbeing & Justice, and a Co-Leader of the Promote Smart Decarceration Grand Challenge for Social Work. She completed her PhD in Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and joint master’s degrees in social work and public administration at Columbia University. She 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 also frequently collaborates with local and state organizations to provide expertise on program and policy issues pertinent to justice-involved parents and their family members.