Eric R. Wright is a Distinguished University Professor of Sociology and Public Health and Chair of the Sociology Department at Georgia State University. He holds a BA in sociology from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and an MA and PhD in sociology and human sexuality from Indiana University Bloomington. As a medical sociologist, his research interests center on social and public policy responses to mental health and illness, substance use and addictions, and sexual health and sexual behavior. Currently, Dr. Wright is actively involved in conducting research to understand and ameliorate social and health problems and disparities in minority and other vulnerable communities, including homeless youths as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people (LGBTQ). He has extensive experience in working with community organizations as well as local and state government to better understand community needs and improve the effectiveness of social-, health-, and healthcare-related programs and policies.
Ana LaBoy is a Research Associate at the Georgia Health Policy Center at Georgia State University. She has a BA in political science with a minor in sociology and an MA and PhD in Sociology, all from Georgia State University. Dr. LaBoy previously worked as a research associate on the Atlanta Youth Count 2018, a National Institute of Justice-funded project studying youth experiencing homelessness, and previous to that worked outside of the academic sphere in a healthcare setting. She is a mixed methodologist with expertise in community-based research and evaluation and has an interest in homelessness, maternal health, substance use, and mental health.
Dr. Nicholas Forge is a Clinical Associate Professor of Social Work at Georgia State University. His education includes bachelor’s (2001) and master’s (2003) degrees in Sociology from Florida Atlantic University and an MSW (2005) from Georgia State University. He holds a Ph.D. (2012) in Social Work from Fordham University in New York City. His social work practice focuses on LGBTQ-identified youths and young adults experiencing houselessness, providing case management, individual counseling, psycho-educational groups, and street outreach in Atlanta and New York. His research focuses on houselessness among LGBTQ-identified youths and young adults, particularly at the intersection of the child welfare system. He was co-investigator on the Atlanta Youth Count and Needs Assessment, a federally funded grant investigating trafficking among youths experiencing homelessness, and was co-principal investigator on a participatory action research project involving LGBTQ homeless youths. He is currently co-PI on an Americorps VISTA grant to increase outreach and service capacity for unhoused youths. He has published in Child Welfare, Children and Youth Services Review, the Journal of Community Psychology, and the Journal of Black Studies, and has co-authored book chapters on child welfare-involved LGBTQ-identified youths as well as those affected by HIV and AIDS. He is a member of the NASW and CSWE, from which he is a recent graduate of their Leadership Academy.
Sierra Carter is an Associate Professor of Clinical and Community Psychology at Georgia State University. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia. Her research interests include racial health inequities and investigating how psychosocial and contextual stressors can affect both mental and physical health outcomes for marginalized populations, with an emphasis on Black American populations. She is currently a member of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS), Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT). For her research and teaching efforts, she has received awards such as the Outstanding Faculty Diversity Award for the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University, the ABCT Outstanding Service Award, the ABCT Francis C. Sumner Excellence Award, and the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award for the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3842-3175
George S. Usmanov is a postdoctoral research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Neurology. George received his PhD in Sociology from George State University in 2024. His research interests center around social connectivity and how social relationships help or hinder individuals’ abilities to cope with problems. George has explored how personal networks shape responses to housing eviction notices, health problems, and threats to well-being. He is a member of the American Sociological Association, the International Network for Social Network Analysis, and the American Public Health Association. George’s work has been awarded the Best Graduate Student Paper award from the Mental Health section of the American Sociological Association, the Urban Studies Institute Seed Grant, and a Dissertation Grant from Georgia State University.
Robin Hartinger-Saunders is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, where she has been a faculty member since 2009. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Welfare (2008) and a Master of Social Work degree (1997) from the University at Buffalo, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a minor in Psychology (1993) from SUNY Fredonia. Since 2015, she has served as the Principal Investigator and Program Director for the Title IV-E Child Welfare Education and Training Program and previously directed the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute’s Workforce Excellence Program at Georgia State University. Her research broadly examines multi-level factors associated with child welfare outcomes. She applies a trauma-informed, intersectional lens to examine how intersecting factors (e.g., race, ethnicity, poverty, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental abilities, etc.) influence the experiences and trajectories of children and youth due to overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination associated with each.