Susan Ann Cole
MSW Program Director, Associate Professor
Office location: 2042
Phone number: 217-244-5231
Email: sacole@illinois.edu
Educational Background
Dr. Susan Cole received her bachelor¹s degree from Marygrove College, Detroit,MI in 1968, her MSW from the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1983, and her PhD in social welfare from the Mandel School of Applied Social Science, Case Western Reserve University, in 2001. After a 25-year professional career in education and social work that included clinical social work practice, program development, evaluation, and research, Dr. Cole joined the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an assistant professor in 2001. She was promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure in 2008. Her career has included development and evaluation of such programs as the Adolescent PKU Program, PKU-Clinic, the University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor; the behavioral health program in the Human Services Department, Ministry of Health, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Majuro, Marshall Islands; the Peer Education Program, Hawai¹i State Department of Health and Department of Education; and development, implementation, and evaluation of the outpatient social work and behavioral health programs for recent immigrants and homeless, severe and persistently mentally ill served at the Kalihi-Palama Health Center, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Dr. Cole is recognized for her research into factors affecting attachment relationships between infants and foster caregivers and psychosocial factors affecting foster caregivers. She is also recognized for her work evaluating crisis nursery interventions for the six nurseries throughout the state of Illinois. An evaluation of the outcomes of Project Return, Springfield, IL, on recidivism of women with families returning from prison is her current focus.
Research and Practice Interests
Research interests include factors affecting attachment relationships of infants in foster care, psychological attributes of foster caregivers, and empirical evaluation of crisis nursery services and volunteer prison reentry services for women. Dr. Cole¹s clinical practice focus is with infants, children and adolescents, clinical practice with groups, and diversity issues in clinical practice.
Current Research
Dr. Cole is currently working with the six crisis nurseries in Illinois to identify appropriate empirical methods for use in evaluating child and parent outcomes in crisis nursery prevention programs (i.e., propensity score matching).
Recent Publications
Book Chapters
Cole, S. A. & Hernandez, P. (2008). Prevention and early interventions: Crisis nursery service outcomes for caregivers at multiple sites in Illinois. In Assessing the “Evidence-base” of for vulnerable children and their families. C. Canali, T. Vecchiato, & J. K. Whittaker (Eds.). Fondazione Emanuela Zancan di ricerca scientifica di relevante interesse sociale. (2008).
Journal Articles
Velez, D. & Cole, S. A. “Culture, Place of Origin, and Service Delivery for Older Adult Latino Immigrants: The Case of Puerto Rican Older Adults,” Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 51, 300-314 (2008).
Cole, S. A., & Hernandez, P. “Crisis nursery outcomes for caregivers served at multiple sites in Illinois.” Children and Youth Services Revie, 30, 452-465 (2008).
Conferences
Cole, S. A. & Hernandez, P. “Crisis nursery service outcomes for caregivers at multiple sites in Illinois.” 10th Annual EUSARF Conference on Assessing the Evidence-base of Intervention for Vulnerable Children and Their Families. Cross National Perspectives and Challenges for Research, Practice, and Policy. Padua, IT (March 26-29, 2008).