Office of Research | School of Social Work

Welcome to the Office of Research

A culture of impact — it’s what drives us. And it defines our research. Our world-class faculty and two research centers are at the forefront of social justice leadership and innovation.

The Office of Research is dedicated to supporting faculty and PhD students’ interests in research, scholarship, and grants. Below you’ll find access to resources, grant guidance, and support systems that allow you to reach your full potential as a scholar and investigator.

Events

Liberate the Possibilities: Research Conversation

Liberate the Possibilities Research Conversation events will be held throughout the academic year.

Check out the full schedule of upcoming events and recordings of past events here.

Grants

Boston University Support

If you’re not sure where to start: Please visit the BU Grants, Contracts, Consulting, Fee-For-Service Initial Form.
For more information and support from the University: Go to Research Support to learn how to navigate your project’s lifecycle.
Find a wide range of resources for researchers here.
Learn more about the Office of Foundation Relations here, including NIH Payline info.

Grant Proposals

To meet the university’s deadlines, while providing support to BUSSW researchers submitting grant applications, BU’s Office of Sponsored Programs requests that you submit this PI Upcoming Proposal Submission Form as soon as you identify a funding opportunity that is of interest to you.

You will need to fill this form out at least 30 days before your submission deadline.

A separate form must be submitted for each funding opportunity. This will allow for a thorough review and necessary corrections in advance of the sponsor deadline, thereby maximizing the opportunity for proposal success.
You can also find helpful information on BUSSW and CISWH study sites (required by some funders) here, and a list of BUSSW’s top funding organizations here.

Promoting Grants on the BUSSW Website

Once your grant is approved and funded, please help us promote it on our Grants webpage by completing this form.

You can also navigate to this form from our website homepage – click the Information For bar at the top of our homepage and you’ll see it listed in the Marketing & Communications Services section.
If you would like MarCom to write a news story about your grant award, please separately submit a Story Request.

Library of Successful Grant Proposals

For a list of successful grant proposals, please click this link to the Google-hosted document. This is available to BU affiliates only. To access the documents below, you will need to set up your BU Google account. Please contact ITHelp@bu.edu if you need guidance. If you have questions about the proposals, please contact Professor Hyeouk Chris Hahm (hahm@bu.edu).

Federal/State Proposal

Foundation Proposals

Fellowship Proposals

Internal Grant Proposals

Presentations

If you are a BUSSW student, faculty, or staff member who is presenting at this year’s APHA, CSWE, or SSWR conferences, please share your information in this Google Sheet. MarCom will develop a website story for each of the three conferences highlighting the collective thought leadership at BUSSW.

Published Research

To have your recent (within the last three months) research published on BUSSW’s promotional channels, please share information about your research – including the abstract or full article – in our Story Request Form here. This link can also be found on the home page of our BUSSW website – click on the Information For bar at the top of the page and you’ll see it listed in the MarCom Services section. The MarCom team will follow up with you to gather further information.

Read about the compelling research being conducted at BUSSW here.

Meet Our Team

Team Members

Associate Dean of Research: Professor Hyeouk Chris Hahm (hahm@bu.edu)

photo of Hyeouk Chris Hahm Prof. Hyeouk Chris Hahm, an expert researcher and faculty member, was named associate dean for research at BUSSW on July 1, 2022. Over her 16 years at BUSSW, Prof. Hahm’s research, teaching, and mentorship have had a significant impact on social work in the SSW community and beyond. Her research focuses on equitable health, with a concentration on health risk behaviors among Asian-American women, and she has developed both theoretical frameworks and real-life culturally-grounded intervention programs to help this population, including AWARE (Asian American Women’s Actions in Resilience and Empowerment) and Youth AWARE. Both programs have now been implemented in schools and colleges to highlight the culturally specific struggles faced by Asian-American women. Learn more here.

Senior Grant Administrator: Melissa Doub (mdoub@bu.edu)

Melissa Doub Melissa Doub joined BUSSW on May 2, 2022, and works fully remote, but is available via phone, Zoom, and Teams. She comes to the School with 25 years of experience in pre/post-award grant experience, previously working as the grants and contracts manager for the Chemistry and Engineering Departments at the University. Melissa graduated from High Point University with a bachelor of science in Business & Accounting. Her passion lies within the granting world, where she can help put budgets together and manage the back end once they have been funded. In her own words: “Seeing the work and dedication that goes into the full proposal is such an amazing feeling, and I love being a part of that! My husband and I have 2 grown daughters, a son-in-law, and 4 grandchildren who we love spending time with. We love traveling, especially creating great family vacations and memories. Some of my hobbies include reading, going on hikes/walks, seeing places I’ve never been to, and just spending time with my family.

Statistician: Varsha Kulkarni (vkulkarn@bu.edu)

Varsha S. Kulkarni is a research assistant professor at the BU Department of Mathematics and Statistics. Starting in fall 2022, Varsha will be available M-W-F to BUSSW for statistical consultation for 20% of her time. She has a Ph.D. in Information Sciences with a Statistics minor from Indiana University Bloomington. Her basic training was in Physics from the University of Delhi and Statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After obtaining her Ph.D., she worked at the Harvard Business School as a researcher specializing as a statistician, and in applied math as a research affiliate at the Harvard Institute of Quantitative Social Science. She also worked as a statistical consultant for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. She has provided statistical guidance and support to Ph.D. students at BUSSW for the statistical analysis of their dissertation.

In her own words, “At BUSSW, I have worked with faculty and students on some very interesting research projects. With Prof. Ellen Devoe’s ‘Strong Families Strong Forces.’ I helped with the identification of co-parenting clusters using Principal component analysis, factor analysis, and Multivariate analysis of variance… I have also been working regularly as a team member on two ongoing projects led by Prof. Ruth Paris.”

Administrative Coordinator: Winnie Chen (wwchen@bu.edu)

Winnie Chen joined CISWH in March 2022 and is currently the administrative coordinator. She works 32 hours at CISWH and 8 hours with BUSSW assisting in processing grant-related transactions. Prior to her time at CISWH, she gained hands-on public health experience at several COVID-19 testing sites at Boston University as a collection site specialist. Winnie graduated from Northeastern University with a bachelor of arts in International Affairs in August of 2019. During her time at Northeastern, she focused on social justice and international NGOs.