Dr. Emily Douglas

Emily M. Douglas, Ph.D. is a full professor and head of the Department of Social Science & Policy Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. In 2016-2017 she was a Congressional fellow with the Society for Research in Child Development and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology, where she worked for Senator Ron Wyden (Oregon) and the Senate Finance Committee on social welfare policy. Prior to this, Dr. Douglas was on the faculty in the School of Social Work at Bridgewater State University for one decade and she completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Murray Straus at the University of New Hampshire.

Her areas of expertise address child and family well-being, and programs and policies that promote positive outcomes. Specifically, her areas of expertise include fatal child maltreatment, the child welfare system, partner violence and help-seeking, corporal punishment, and divorced families. Her research on male victims of female partner violence, which she conducts with Dr. Denise Hines (Clark University), has been funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Her latest book is, Child Maltreatment Fatalities in the United States: Four Decades of Policy, Programs, and Professional Responses. Dr. Douglas has given invited testimony for the U.S. Commission on the Elimination of Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, has spoken multiple times at the Massachusetts State House, and has served on a governor-appointed committee in the State of Maine. Dr. Douglas was the founder/director of the National Research Conference on Child and Family Programs and Policy which was held for five summers from 2008-2012. Dr. Douglas is the author/co-author of four books on family policy issues and 50 peer-reviewed publications.