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The Family Welfare Research and Training Group is involved in three major types of activities: research; paternity
affidavit information reporting; and training. The Research Team's primarily activity is leveraging administrative data to provide
empirically-based, policy-relevant information for decision-makers in the welfare and child support fields. In addition to a number
of smaller child support and welfare projects, the Group produces two report series which provide a barometer of welfare reform in
Maryland: Life After Welfare, a longitudinal, nationally-acclaimed study of welfare leavers; and Life on Welfare, a series of studies
focusing on the circumstances of special populations in the current welfare caseload.
Our Paternity Affidavit Information Reporting Unit (PAIR) manages the state's voluntary paternity
acknowledgement database and provides a valuable Faxback service to local workers who need to obtain copies of affidavits quickly.
Our Policy and Skills Training Team (PSTT) provides professional classroom training on a variety of pertinent topics for both state and local staff involved
with welfare reform.
Catherine E. Born
Principal Investigator
Dr. Born is Research Associate Professor at SSW where, since the late 1970s, she has worked full-time on the design and conduct of state-level welfare and child support research, training, and technical assistance projects. She has been Principal Investigator on every single project carried out by the Family Welfare Research and Training Group through their partnerships with the Maryland Department of Human Resources. Dr. Born regularly presents research findings to a wide variety of audiences through testimony at federal and state legislative hearings, research conferences, and other venues. She is also an active participant in policy design and program oversight committees for the state and has served on a number of boards and commissions.
Pamela Caudill Ovwigho
Research Director
Dr. Ovwigho has been with the Family Welfare Research and Training Group since May 1995. She serves as Research Director for the DHR research partnership and the Project Director for the Life After Welfare study. Dr. Ovwigho has a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the Pennsylvania State University and a PhD in Human Services Psychology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Her research interests include welfare utilization patterns, welfare caseload trends, and the interaction of welfare programs with child support and child welfare.
Jill Hlaston
Training Director
Jill Hlaston joined the Family Welfare Research and Training Group in September 1996 as the Director of Training.
Before joining our group, she spent five plus years with the Child Support Enforcement Administration at the Maryland
DHR training the state child support workforce on the automated child support enforcement system. Jill received her
bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland College Park. A proud member of the Policy and Skills Training Team,
she and her teammates train state and local staff involved with welfare reform to better serve the families of Maryland.
Jay Hood
IT Director
Jay Hood is responsible for implementing and maintaining the technology that supports the research and training groups. Before coming to the Group in 1997, Jay
worked at the Maryland Department of Human Resources for six years in a variety of IT related functions ranging from Help Desk to aiding with creating the first Web site for the Department.
Jay earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Management Information Systems from Loyola College in 1991, and a Master of General Administration degree in General Business from the University of Maryland University College in 1996.
Pamela Manning
Administrative Director
Pamela Love first joined the Family Welfare Research and Training Group in 1993 as a summer intern. In 1997, she became the Group’s full-time Administrator, overseeing all of the administrative and financial functions.
Pamela has a bachelor’s degree in Applied Psychology from Coppin State College, a MSW from the University of Maryland Baltimore, and is working on her dissertation
on transfer of training with the expectation of completing a PhD in Social Work from UMB in 2007.
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