The University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work announced that Dr. James Huguley will become interim director of the Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP) and Dr. John Wallace will become Senior Fellow for Research and Community Engagement effective August 1. Dr. Larry Davis, who founded the center in 2002 and developed its role in leading and elevating race-related conversations and research, will retire in fall 2019 to become professor and dean emeritus.
“CRSP is a valuable resource to the School of Social Work, the University and the region” said Davis. “Race remains America’s defining social problem. The center provides a place to conduct race focused research as well as a venue to discuss race matters. Long gone are comments that America is post-racial. The center is needed today more than ever. Much to the University’s credit ours was the first school of social work to have a Center dedicated explicitly to race.”
Dr. Huguley has been a researcher and faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work since 2013. His work is centered on race-related topics, with a particular interest in ways that schools and families can support positive development of African American children. He is the Principal Investigator for the Just Discipline Project, a research-to-practice initiative centered on best practices in positive school climate and restorative school discipline. He is also Co-Principal Investigator on the Pittsburgh Parenting Project, which examines best practices in culturally distinct parenting in African American families; and with Pitt-Assisted Communities and Schools, which implements holistic university supports in high-need learning communities.
Dr. Huguley will oversee all activities and planning at CRSP, where his work has been housed for the past six years. “I’ve had the wonderful privilege of working at CRSP with Director and Founder Larry Davis for some time now. I’m thrilled to build on the groundbreaking work that he has done in making CRSP a leader in the cultivation and dissemination of race research and evidence-based practices” said Huguley. “Going forward, our team hopes to expand the Center’s footprint locally and nationally toward even greater impact on ameliorating social problems and promoting racial justice.”
Dr. Wallace brings a long-standing and nationally recognized program of community-engaged research and intervention to his new role as CRSP Senior Fellow for Research and Community Engagement, where he will work with Dr. Huguley as well as academic and community partners to expand research activities, opportunities, and funding. Dr. Wallace will also help CRSP implement a multi-tiered dissemination approach to share CRSP’s important work with a variety of relevant audiences.
“I am deeply grateful for Dr. Davis's long-standing efforts to build the center and willingness to help figure out its future, to Dr. Huguley for stepping up and being willing to throw himself fully into the lead on CRSP's next phase, and to Dr. Wallace for providing support and guidance” said Dean Betsy Famer. “I am very excited about the future and look forward to the chance to see CRSP continue to build, lead, and push boundaries on thinking, conversations, and research around race and social problems.”
About the Center on Race and Social Problems
In 2002, the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh established the Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP) to help lead America further along the path to social justice by conducting race-related research, mentoring emerging scholars, and disseminating race-related research findings and scholarship. Today, CRSP encompasses a range of activities and initiatives that support research, bring together scholars, disseminate findings to key academic and policy-relevant stakeholders, and advance knowledge and understanding around race. In 2010, it hosted the largest conference on race ever held in America. In addition, the center offers a speaker series, summer institutes, demographics and other topical reports, pilot grant awards, and the interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal Race and Social Problems.
For more information please contact Shannon Murphy at shm87@pitt.edu