Melinda Gushwa

Melinda Gushwa is a Researcher at the Department of Applied Social Sciences within the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology at Simmons University. She is currently accepting PhD students and focuses on child welfare systems, maltreatment prevention, and social work education. Her research explores the intersection of societal challenges like the pandemic's impact on child welfare workers, mental health in youth, and systemic inequities in service provision.

Key research interests include child welfare practice conditions, fatherhood program efficacy, and trauma-informed therapeutic approaches. Collaborative work has addressed racial equity in social work education and the implications of discrimination on LGBTQ+ youth mental health. Media engagements highlight her contributions to public discourse on foster care failures, mental health access barriers, and field education challenges in clinical settings.

Her 2024 study on pandemic-era child welfare working conditions was published in the Journal of Public Child Welfare. Earlier work includes evaluations of fatherhood programs and analyses of maltreatment fatality risk factors across states. Gushwa’s research consistently bridges academic inquiry with actionable policy recommendations to enhance vulnerable populations' well-being.