Joel A. Devine, PhD is the Executive Director of PTUC/ISRP and the former chair of the Tulane Department of Sociology where he is also a full professor.  His teaching and research interests include urban sociology, poverty and social welfare, political economy, political sociology and evaluation research. He has co-authored three books and has published numerous articles on subjects such as public housing, the American underclass, substance abuse, homelessness and crime. Dr. Devine has served as Director or Principal Investigator on research grants funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Louisiana Board of Regents, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He received his PhD in Sociology from Indiana University in 1981.

Contact: devine@tulane.edu
My CV: Joel Devine

Rebecca Chaisson, PhD,  is a LCSW and the Interim Director for the Institute for the study of Race and Poverty. Assistant Professor, School of Social Work. Dr. Chaisson has extensive experience as an educator, supervisor and administrator in both the private and public sectors. She has taught courses in social work practice, diversity and oppression, and addictive behaviors. She has experience as a clinician with individuals, families, and groups. Her current interests include social justice from the micro to macro levels of practice, diversity, health and mental health, and social work education. Rebecca is also the director of the Porter-Cason Institute.

Contact: chaisson@tulane.edu
My CV: Rebecca Chaisson

Vy Thuc Dao is a Tulane graduate student completing her PhD in Sociology and serves as the Program Manager at the Institute for the Study of Race and Poverty. Her research focuses upon the study of formal organizations, community behavior and social/political movements. She is particularly interested in the interactional effects of race, class and gender upon institutions. Currently she is designing the online digital repository for the PTUC/ISRP Research Clearinghouse.

Contact: vdao@tulane.edu

Liljana Mamoorian Johnson is the Project Assistant for the Partnership for the Transformation of Urban Communities while she completes her Master's in Public Health at Tulane University with a concentration in Global Maternal and Child Health.  Liljana is committed both professionally and personally to promote human rights, social justice, sustainable development, and marginalized population equity locally and worldwide with a special interest in gender and ethnicity. Ms. Johnson is facilitating the work of the PTUC/ISRP Community Research Clearinghouse.