Poco D. Kernsmith

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Dr. Poco D. Kernsmith is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Welfare. Dr. Kernsmith has integrated practice and research experience in the development and implementation of several federally funded research and intervention projects, focusing on the etiology and prevention of perpetration of violence by youth among peers, in families, and in intimate relationships. These projects include a longitudinal study on the modifiable protective factors to prevent intimate partner and sexual violence perpetration, and the development and evaluation of school-based violence prevention programs in university and middle school settings. Dr. Kernsmith is currently studying how school policies can help create inclusive, trauma-informed environments to prevent and respond to violence or threats of violence in middle and high schools.

Dr. Kernsmith’s research has been funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Justice, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and the Michigan State Policy Center. Dr. Kernsmith’s additional research areas include inclusive and comprehensive sexual health education, water justice, collective trauma, and community-based strategies to prevent hate-motivated violence and domestic terrorism. Dr. Kernsmith has also volunteered with the American Civil Liberties Union to support efforts related to reform of the criminal legal system.

Dr. Kernsmith has primarily taught classes in research methods at the BSW, MSW, and PhD levels, as well as courses related to violence prevention and intervention. As the PhD program director at two universities, Dr. Kernsmith engaged in efforts to assess structural barriers to student success and engaged in systems change to promote equity and inclusion in the academic system. Dr. Kernsmith is engaged in ongoing research to assess disparities in mentorship of doctoral students.

Livier Gutiérrez

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Prior to entering the doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles, Livier worked on applied research and direct-service work to make community violence prevention services more responsive to girls. She served as the director of programs at Alliance for Girls, the nation’s largest alliance of girl-serving organizations, as the director of violence prevention at Enlace Chicago, a community-based organization serving La Villita (a.k.a., Chicago’s Little Village community); and a researcher at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, a national applied research non-profit and policy organization.  

Livier earned her master’s degree in social work with a concentration in violence prevention from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration and bachelor’s degree in sociology and social welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. Livier’s undergraduate research explored the ideology, structure, and recruitment strategies of The Minutemen, a militant xenophobic organization (a.k.a., a gang). As a master’s student, Livier’s thesis was an applied research project that explored girls’ involvement and association with youth-led street organizations (a.k.a., gangs) and resulted in a violence-prevention program for girls. Through community work, Livier has seen how school, family, and other systems take key aspects of a girls’ identity—like race, immigration status, sexual orientation, and gender identity—to impose social and economic constraints on them. Despite the constraints placed on them, Livier has also seen how girls use their power to make systems safer for themselves and others. Livier is interested in leveraging mixed methods, with a focus on action research, and theory to highlight the experiences and stories of girls, especially their ability to change their ecology and improve safety for themselves and others. In doing so, Livier hopes to advance social work’s violence prevention theory, methods, and practice.