Education: B.A., Political Science and Economics, University of North Florida. M.S.W., University of Georgia. Ph.D., Social Work, Florida State University.

Experience: Following completion of her MSW, Dr. Steen began work as a lobbyist, organizer, and trainer at the Florida Chapter of the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse. During this time, she worked to ensure the passage of legislation that was beneficial to the welfare of abused and neglected children. She also organized and trained a network of Florida advocates, who sought to educate the public and legislators regarding issues surrounding the rights of children. Following this work, she was hired by the Florida State University Learning Systems Institute. Here she organized the work of TEAM Florida, which was a network of representatives from Florida Departments (Children and Families, Education, Health, and Juvenile Justice) who sought to increase collaborative efforts on behalf of children. During this time, she also provided technical support to local coordinators responsible for implementing the Adoptions and Safe Families Act. In 1999, she entered the Ph.D. program at the Florida State University School of Social Work. During the doctoral program, she worked in the FSU School of Social Work. She taught classes in both the BSW and MSW programs. She also participated in several research grants in the areas of abstinence education evaluation, services for victims of human trafficking, and the links between child protection and mental health.

Teaching Areas: Social welfare policy, community organizing, macro practice, social work research, and practice evaluation.

Research Interests: Human rights, child welfare, policy development and analysis, and community level risk and protective factors.

Selected Publications:

Steen, J. A., & Mathieson, S. (2005). Human rights education: Is social work behind the curve? Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 25(3/4), 143-156.

Steen, J. A. (2006). The roots of human rights advocacy and a call to action. Social Work, 51(2), 101-105.

Selected Presentations:

Steen, J. A. (2006, June). Human rights resolutions in the United Nations: The voting record of the United States. Paper presented at the annual meeting of Influencing State Policy (ISP), Washington, DC.

Steen, J. A. (2006, June). Teaching policy advocacy using Florida’s Stand Up and Shout Network model. Paper presented at the annual meeting of Influencing State Policy (ISP), Washington, DC.

Steen, J. A., & Delva, J. (2006, August). A country-level analysis of correlates of human rights violations. Poster presentation for the biannual conference of the International Association of Schools of Social work, Santiago, Chile.

Steen, J. A. (2006, October). A framework for developing location-specific programs to rescue victims of human trafficking. Paper accepted for an international conference organized by Résovi, a research component of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Family Violence and Violence Against Women (CRI-VIFF), Montreal, Canada.

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