Dr. Jocelyn DeVance Taliaferro, MSW is an Associate Professor in the North Carolina State University School of Social Work. Dr. Taliaferro’s current research interests include nonprofit lobbying and teaching using contemporary television. Her work appears in the Journal of Child and Family Social Work, Journal of Policy Practice, Administration in Social Work and Education and Urban Society. She recently completed a book on teaching social policy using the HBO special The Wire. She currently serves as Principal Investigator for the Opioid Workforce Expansion Program grant where students are provided addiction prevention and treatment training and education and receive a $10,000 stipend. Dr. Taliaferro has served the NC State School of Social Work as faculty but also held the administrative positions of Director of the Graduate Program (DGP), Director of Field Instruction, and Interim Associate Department Head. In addition to her work in academia, she spent more than 25 years in the field of social work and nonprofit administration, which included Middle and Senior Management positions. Dr. Taliaferro has been an active member on several nonprofit boards of directors in Washington DC, Maryland, Delaware, and North Carolina. She has been teaching face-to-face, online, and hybrid courses since 2003. 

Dr. Sarah Ascienzo, LCSW is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at North Carolina State University. Dr. Ascienzo has over 15 years of clinical practice experience with children and families adversely affected by psychological trauma, including work as a trauma-focused clinician in community- and school-based settings and child forensic interviewer. During her clinical career, Dr. Ascienzo specialized in the treatment of complex trauma, and worked extensively with child welfare-involved youth. She also has experience as a trainer and program implementer in the areas of trauma-informed/responsive care, clinical interventions for trauma-exposed youth, and vicarious trauma/secondary traumatic stress. Informed by her practice experience, Dr. Ascienzo's research focuses on mitigating the impact of direct and indirect trauma exposure and building healthy and resilient communities. She utilizes a variety of methodological approaches, and strives to participate in collaborative, culturally competent, community-engaged, and translational research. Her most recent projects have included an analysis of posttraumatic stress symptom response to isolated phases of Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; an exploration of sex- and gender-based differences in meaning making among trauma-exposed youth; and an examination of factors impacting the implementation and sustainability of trauma-focused interventions in community settings. 

Diamond Allen, MSW is a Clinical Psychology doctoral student at East Tennessee State University. Her current research interests include harm reduction, substance use disorders, stigma, and reentry. She is a recent graduate of the NC State University Master of Social Work program, with a concentration in substance use and recovery. Her master's capstone project evaluated patient satisfaction transitioning from in-person to virtual group counseling at a methadone treatment center. Diamond has completed training and education related to substance use prevention and treatment during her time as an Opioid Workforce Expansion Program scholar. She is passionate about providing mental health and substance use services to those in rural communities.  

Dr. Haley is the President and founder of Haley Evaluation & Research Services (HERS) and began her research career at the National Development & Research Institutes’ (NDRI), Institute for Community-Based Research (ICBR) in Raleigh, NC. Before then, she was a Social Worker providing therapeutic services to families, adolescents, and children. After nearly 15 years in the research industry, including suppler and solicitor experience, Dr. Haley launched HERS to offer Fortune 500 research capabilities and expertise to the government and non-profit sectors. Dr. Haley has a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) in Sociology from Yale University, a Master of Social Work degree (MSW) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Certificate in Substance Abuse studies, and a doctoral degree (PhD) in Applied Social and Community Psychology from North Carolina State University. In addition, she is a Certified Qualtrics CoreXM Expert. She is also a member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA), Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA), National Association of Social Workers (NASW), and the Atlanta Chapter of the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW).

Fatima Zohra Hedadji, MSW is a recent graduate of the NC State University Master of Social Work program, with a concentration in macro social work and health disparity. Fatima has over 5 years of experience in community engagement, resource dissemination and healthcare program management. Throughout her academic career, Fatima has studied the impacts of socioeconomic status on physical health, state-wide implementation of mental health parity laws, and health service needs of Hispanic/Latinx US Americans with Opioid Use Disorder. Her master's capstone project evaluated the inclusion of Black women in mental health discourse on Twitter throughout 2020. Her most recent experience on research teams has included work in study recruitment strategy and social media management.  

Nia Pierce is a Junior Sociology major and Biological Science minor at North Carolina State University. Her current research interest are in areas related to social determinants of health, health disparities, and adverse childhood experiences. Some of her extracurricular involvements include being a 2021 Duke RESURP Scholar, Director of Outreach and Service for the Minority Association for Pre Health Students, and being a COVID-19 Testing Volunteer on campus.