Robin Marie Hartinger-Saunders
Associate Professor School of Social Work- Biography
Dr. Hartinger-Saunders has over 30 years of experience in child welfare with 11 years of practice experience in public child welfare. Her primary area of research explores individual, family, peer, neighborhood, and organizational factors associated with child welfare outcomes. Intersectionality is a central theoretical framework of her work, allowing her to explore unique factors that intersect to shape the experiences of children and youth and their trajectories.
Broad Research Interests include The impact of trauma on children and youth, victimization and offending among youth, the experiences of LGBTQ-identified youth with previous child welfare system involvement, the experiences of adoptive parents and adoptees, child welfare workforce development, technology and social work education, technology, and social & economic justice for traditionally marginalized populations.
Current Administrative Roles:
Dr. Hartinger-Saunders is the Principal Investigator and Program Director of two child welfare workforce initiatives in the SSW: the Title IV-E Child Welfare Education and Training Program and the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) Workforce Excellence Program. She has managed close to 2.7 million dollars in Title IVE contracts since 2016. The NCWWI project is a five-year, $600,000 grant funded by the Children’s Bureau through SUNY, University at Albany.
Research:
Early in her research career, Dr. Hartinger-Saunders simultaneously explored family, peer, and neighborhood factors contributing to young men’s victimization and criminal offending. She also conducted the 2012 National Adoptive Families Study, which explored the emotional, social, psychological, and practical experiences of adoptive families who adopt children from the child welfare system and examined short and long-term outcomes for adoptive families and adoptees. Dr. Saunders also examined the ecological context of mental, emotional, and behavioral health problems among young men with her colleagues from the University at Buffalo, Buffalo Center for Social Research. She was also one of several co-investigators on the Atlanta Youth Count and Needs Assessment (AYCNA) with Principal Investigators Dr. Eric Wright and Dr. Erin Ruel in the Department of Sociology. Her most recent work with Dr. Nicholas Forge examines trauma experienced by LGBTQ-identified youth with previous child welfare system involvement who are also experiencing homelessness.