BSOS

Odis Johnson, Jr.,assistant professor, African American studies, completed his doctoraltraining atthe University of Michigan and has been a recipient of the National Academies Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship and the Spencer Foundation Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Chicago. Prior to his appointment in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland, Professor Johnson served as an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Education. He is currently exploring two related research initiatives; one examines the role of ecology and endogenous capital in shaping the social organization of neighborhoods and their institutions, and the other considers the impact of associational redistributive policies on racial inequality. Dr. Johnson is a member of the editorial board of the journal, The Urban Review.

David Kirk, assistant professor, criminology & criminal justice, received his Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago. His substantive research interests focus broadly on exploring the differential influences of various social contexts on delinquency and violence. Methodologically, his interests include multi-level modeling, growth curve modeling, network analysis, spatial analysis and applications of item response theory.

Sangeetha Madhavan, assistant professor, African American studies and faculty associate in the Maryland Population Research Center, received her master's degree and Ph.D. in sociology and demography from the University of Pennsylvania. She has a wide range of research interests, including children’s well-being, household and family change, the social context of HIV/AIDS and population movement, all in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. Her recent publications appear in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, Comparative Education Review and Social Networks. She has also contributed chapters to several edited volumes including E. van de Walle (ed.) African Households: Censuses and Survey.

Joseph Richardson, assistant professor, African-American studies, received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University-School of Criminal Justice and his bachelor's degree in African-American/African studies from the University of Virginia. He recently completed a Spencer Foundation Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Chicago-Consortium for Chicago School Research. He was also a research associate for Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, where he was a member of the MacArthur Foundation's Transitions to Adulthood Research Network. His research interests focuses on how disadvantaged youth and families living in urban communities develop, manage and utilize social capital and their social networks to move out of poverty. Much of his research focuses on the social, cultural and structural factors which impact African-American men: employment, education, incarceration, fatherhood and health. His current research interest focuses on the social context of juvenile re-entry and the reintegration of young African-American males into schools, the work force, communities and families following incarceration. This work also identifies the gaps in social and mental health services for juvenile offenders returning from detention. Dr. Richardson is currently writing a book, entitled "When Flowers Grow in the Cracks," on the children and families he studied in Harlem.

Razvan Vlaicu, assistant professor, economics, earned an M.A. degree in economics at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary before receiving his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University. His fields of specialization are political
economy and applied microeconomics. He was a teaching assistant at Northwestern University's Weinberg College and worked as a research assistant at the Kellogg School of Management. At Maryland he is teaching ECON422 - Quantitative Methods in Economics and ECON757 - Topics in Political Economy.

In-Young Yeo, assistant professor, geography, holds a Ph.D. in city and regional planning and a master's degree in civil and environmental engineering from the Ohio State University (OSU). Prior to joining the University of Maryland, she taught at OSU and Cornell University. Her research interests include application of geographic information systems and quantitative methods for environmental modeling and land-use management.