Name: Marah A. Curtis

Current Position: Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Social Work, Boston, MA

CUSSW degree and specialization: Ph.D., Social Work. Concentration in Social Policy & Policy Analysis, February 2005.

Dissertation title: Public Policy, Economic Conditions and the Living Arrangements of Mothers.  Sponsor: Irwin Garfinkel

Experience in the doctoral program:  "My doctoral and post-doctoral training at the Columbia University School of Social Work and the Social Indicators Survey Center provided me with the conceptual and methodological tools to actively pursue a research career focused on the analysis of public policies affecting children and families. Columbia provided an extraordinarily rich interdisciplinary environment and underscored the importance of the exchange of ideas, concepts, and analytical methods across disciplines. Understanding how various disciplines (i.e., sociology, social work, economics, psychology, anthropology, political science, and public health) frame and analyze a social problem and engaging in multidisciplinary research often leads to the most creative and productive approaches for examining pressing social problems. This experience, working with and being trained by exceptional researchers, made the doctoral program a truly wonderful experience. Most important to me were the mentorship, research opportunities, rigorous classes across the University, and the exciting feeling that important, policy-relevant research was being conducted all around and that I was being trained to become a part of this work. I completed all Ph.D. requirements in November of 2004, had the degree conferred in February of 2005 and continued on as a post-doctoral fellow in the Social Indicators Survey Center working with both Irwin Garfinkel and Jane Waldfogel until I joined the faculty of the Boston University School of Social Work in September, 2005."

Description of current research:  Dr. Curtis' research focuses on the impact of income-conditioned public benefits, such as subsidized and public housing and TANF, on vulnerable families. "I am interested in the interaction of the eligibility criteria of various subsidies and the family formation decisions of low-income parents. Often, families are eligible for and receive a number of subsidies or benefits, each with varying eligibility criteria, earnings calculations and household composition requirements. These programs in turn affect core decisions about whom a person can live with, whether and what type of employment they will seek, and many other choices families make. These choices directly affect the environment in which children are being raised and their outcomes."

Dr. Curtis received a Peter Paul Career Development Professorship from Boston University effective 2006 through 2009, awarded to support the research of outstanding junior faculty.

"My research suggests that public benefits like housing subsidies and TANF, as well as local area economic conditions like unemployment rates, housing costs and the availability of potential mates, are all important in determining mothers' living arrangements. I also find, however, that personal characteristics like fathers' incarceration history and having children with more than one partner have dramatic impacts on family formation. Both a history of incarceration and multiple partner fertility affect not only a mother's decisions but the lives of her extended family as well." Dr. Curtis notes, "findings related to incarceration deeply influenced my desire to focus on the health of low-income urban fathers who are often left out of public policy except through the child support enforcement system or criminal justice system." Dr. Curtis was recently awarded a one-year grant through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's New Connections Initiative: Bringing Diversity to RWJF Grantmaking and Increasing Secondary Data Analysis program, which seeks to bring to the Foundation a broader perspective on its program planning and design. This grant will allow Dr. Curtis to examine the effect of incarceration on fathers' health utilizing the nationally representative Fragile Families and Child Well-Being data set.

Curtis explains that, "Health is a vital component in family well-being often overlooked for low-income, urban fathers. Labor market opportunities, parenting tasks, and familial living all are impacted by the ability of both parents to function in their assigned roles. Fathers with poor health are more likely to have labor market difficulties and excessive expenses and may be forced to make trade-offs between medications and other goods."

"These fathers," she continues,"are often part of vulnerable families and communities with little resources who are also eligible for very few, if any public benefits. Understanding the effects of incarceration on the health of a mostly low-income group of urban fathers will provide relevant information about a particularly vulnerable, often underserved population."