The Child Well-Being Research Network (CWRN) is a collaborative network promoting child well-being and maltreatment prevention through interdisciplinary research that informs policy and practice. CWRN is currently comprised of 187 members at 135 universities, research centers, and government agencies.

The CWRN is an outgrowth of the Doris Duke Fellowships, that was comprised of 120 Doris Duke Fellows and was generously funded by the Doris Duke Foundation. The program was founded by Dr. Deborah Daro at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago and was designed to identify and develop leaders who conduct practice and policy-relevant research that enhances child development and improves the nation’s ability to prevent all forms of child maltreatment. As the Fellowship came to a close, Fellows elected to transform that network into a broader, membership-driven network to support and connect child well-being researchers.

 

Transition to the University of Kentucky

In 2023, the CWRN transitioned to a new institutional home, the University of Kentucky College of Social Work (CoSW). The College of Social Work (CoSW) allows researchers, practitioners, academicians, and students the opportunity to conceptualize and conduct cutting-edge research, programming, and consultation aimed at assuaging and addressing contemporary challenges facing individuals, communities, and families.

Dr. Lisa Schelbe, CWRN leader and Fellow, is the new CWRN director and will work alongside Chapin Hall’s CWRN team to coordinate this transition. During the transition to CoSW, CWRN will continue to explore new and innovative ways to conduct and support intradisciplinary research aimed at preventing maltreatment and child welfare system involvement and improving child well-being. Additionally, CWRN will explore strategies to continue cultivating pipelines for future well-being researchers.

 

CWRN Leadership

The new director of the CWRN is Dr. Lisa Schelbe. Dr. Schelbe, associate professor at Florida State University College of Social Work, was a recipient of the Doris Duke Fellowship for the Promotion of Child Well-Being, and has been involved in developing the CWRN from its inception. Dr. Schelbe is a qualitative methodologist and her research focuses on young people in and aging out of foster care. Her newest book, Some Type of Way: Aging out of Foster Care, is an ethnography following the lives of five young people leaving foster care. Dr. Schelbe credits the Fellowship to solidifying her commitment to scholarship that impacts policy and practice that seeks to end child maltreatment and promote well-being. She is excited to continue and expand this work with CWRN.

“CWRN’s ability to positively impact the lives of children, families, and communities is strengthened by our commitment to centering our work in in diversity, equity, and inclusion and interdisciplinary, collaborative scholarship that informs policy and practice,” explained Dr. Schelbe. “As we continue to build a diverse pipeline of researchers who seek to end child maltreatment and promote child well-being, we want to support researchers to engage with community partners and interest parties and to understand effective translation and dissemination strategies.” 

 

Doris Duke Fellowships Cohort Six, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, October 2016

The Child Well-Being Research Network’s goals are to: 

  • Improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in the child well-being research field;

  • Build a pipeline of diverse child well-being and child maltreatment prevention researchers;

  • Expand the Network to new child well-being and maltreatment prevention researchers;

  • Share knowledge and opportunities among Network members;

  • Translate and disseminate research to multiple audiences;

  • Collaborate with similar networks; and

  • Elevate applied research that informs policy and practice, including Research to Action Grants

 
 

Child Well-Being Research Network Staff

 

Project Associate

Tiffany Burkhardt

Senior Researcher

Senior Research Fellow and Founder, Doris Duke Fellowships

Raya Kenepp

Project Associate

 

In terms of promoting child well-being, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Inc. has three goals: building a repertoire of prevention strategies, developing and disseminating knowledge, and expanding the capacity of existing systems that support the well-being of children. The Doris Duke Fellowships for the Promotion of Child-Well-Being and the Child Well-Being Research Network fall under the Foundation's mission to develop and disseminate knowledge; by supporting developing talent in the field of child well-being promotion and maltreatment prevention, the Foundation builds research and practice capacity, thus creating long-lasting change.