Please join #AltAc’s meet and greet with its next rock star:
Embedding Research in Practice as a Multidisciplinary Scholar with Dr. Jodie Dewey
Holding several former positions in criminal justice, Dr. Dewey decided to pursue her graduate degree believing community and lived-experience-driven research held the key to improving program processes. Seeing the inequities in the system, along with how practitioner decision-making deeply shaped service users’ engagement with programs, Dr. Dewey desired to use her knowledge working within the system to reimagine future possibilities. She brings this vision and energy to her current position at the Lighthouse Institute, the research arm of a large private healthcare system. Utilizing mixed-method research and collaborating with community stakeholders, Dr. Dewey participates in several health-related research projects. Join Dr. Dewey as she discusses how she makes an immediate impact on practice through research.
Keywords: Behavioral Health Research, Evaluation and Program Research, Embedded
Researcher, Practitioner Collaborations
Dr. Jodie Dewey
Research Scientist
Chestnut Health Systems
Dr. Jodie Dewey received her Ph.D. from Loyola University in sociology, with a focus on criminal justice and medical sociology.
I am a trained qualitative researcher with over 20 years of experience interviewing unique populations across criminal, legal, and health institutions. I have expertise in gender and racial equity and utilize a community-driven and critical feminist approach toward system improvement. From 2000–2021, I held several academic positions including as a tenured Professor of Sociology. As an interim department chair and director of the criminal justice program (2016–2021), I developed and taught courses on sociological methods and theory, gender and sexual diversity, healthcare, and criminal justice, including corrections and policing. Over the past thirty years, I have worked, volunteered, and researched probation, police, and prison environments. For example, while employed as a probation officer (2000–2003), I engaged in several community-led projects and assisted our department’s research team to study the effectiveness of the sex-offender program. As part of my master’s thesis (2003), I worked on a project with the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) in which we studied the reintegration challenges of Chicago residents returning from Illinois prisons. Former volunteer work also included managing youth from the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in a housing program in the Chicago suburbs, as well as working with the Chicago Recovery Alliance distributing clean needles and naloxone to opioid substance users on the west side of Chicago. Based on these experiences and my commitment to improving criminal justice practices, I led a research project in which I studied police training across several Midwest police academies. Through this research I was then invited to provide feedback on training scenarios, refine course curricula, and develop a new course on LGBTQI allyship and police practices. In 2021, I made a career shift from academia to a Research Scientist position at Chestnut Health Systems where I conduct applied behavioral health research. This career shift has offered me the opportunity to delve deeper into my interests at the intersection of criminal justice and health.
Meeting Resources
Alt Ac Rockstar Dr. Jodie Dewey Recording
Please join #AltAc’s meet and greet with its next rock star:
Let’s Talk About What the Science Says, but Make it a Career with Dr. Megan Meyer
With a background in nutritional immunology, Dr. Meyer certainly gets the science, but more importantly, she has a knack for talking about the science to anyone. You could say she’s mastered the science of science storytelling. Like the health field, justice and social science industries are harnessing the power of storytelling with data. Now’s the time we think about how we break into these new emerging careers. Join Dr. Meyer as she talks about her journey from research and data translation in premier advertisement agencies to science storytelling as the founder of her consulting company.
Keywords: Science Community, Data Storytelling, Consulting, Research in Advertisement
Agencies
Dr. Megan Meyer
Dr. Megan Meyer is a science communication consultant who is passionate about translating
science to a variety of audiences. She received her PhD in nutritional immunology from the
University of North Carolina and has worked with non-profits, universities and companies on
various science communication efforts. From PlosOne to PopSci, her work and perspective have
been featured in leading scientific journals and top-tier outlets like CNN, NPR, The Washington
Post and USA Today. She’s also spoken at international and national conferences such as the
Gordon Research Symposium, The American Society for Nutrition’s Annual Meeting and Good
Housekeeping’s Future of Food.
Meeting Resources
Alt Ac Rockstar Dr. Megan Meyer Recording