THE FIELD CENTER
for Children's Policy, Practice & Research

Who We Are > Faculty Directors

Cindy Christian, MD, holds the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Chair in the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. She is Co-Director of Safe Place: The Center for Child Protection and Health at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Christian devotes much of her clinical and academic work to the care of abused children. She directs the hospital's CARE clinic and provides care to children admitted to the hospital with abusive injuries. She is a member of a number of local and national organizations devoted to maltreated children. Dr. Christian's research is related to the medical evaluation and care of abused children. Dr. Christian lectures nationally on topics related to the evaluation and care of abused and neglected children.

email Cindy Christian > curriculum vitae (pdf)

Cindy Connolly, PhD RN PNP, is Associate Professor of Nursing, at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Connolly’s research analyzes the forces that have shaped children’s health care delivery and family policy in the United States.  She is particularly interested in the evolution of pediatric medical and nursing practice, the way in which illness has been experienced over time by children and families, and the legacy of past politics in current health and social welfare policies.  After receiving her PhD in nursing history from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Connolly entered  postdoctoral training at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health’s History of Public Health and Medicine Program. Her time at Columbia was enhanced by a fellowship in the United States Senate with the late Senator Paul Wellstone [D-Minn] where she worked extensively on children’s health and social welfare issues, including reauthorization of the Child Abuse and Prevention Treatment Act (CAPTA). After five years at the Yale University School of Nursing, she returned to the University of Pennsylvania where she teaches undergraduate pediatric nursing as well as a Benjamin Franklin Honors seminar, “Children’s Health in the United States, 1800-2000”. Dr. Connolly completed an NIH-funded project focusing on an early twentieth century child-focused intervention, the preventorium, and her research was published in her award-winning book:  Saving Sickly Children: The Tuberculosis Preventorium in American Life, 1909–1970.   Her current research, A Prescription for a Healthy Childhood: A History of Children and Pharmaceuticals in the United States, 1945-2003, interweaves history and policy to study children and pharmaceuticals in the post World War II United States.  One case study focuses on clinical trial participation in children living in foster care and institutional settings.

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Kara Finck, Esq., directs the Interdisciplinary Child Advocacy Clinic, focusing on the legal needs of children and families. Students enrolled in the clinic engage in direct legal representation, while also working on systemic reform projects in the areas of child welfare and Family Court.

Before coming to Penn Law, she was the Managing Attorney of the Family Defense Practice at The Bronx Defenders, where she created a groundbreaking interdisciplinary legal practice for parents involved in the child welfare system.Kara Finck directs the Interdisciplinary Child Advocacy Clinic, focusing on the legal needs of children and families. Students enrolled in the clinic engage in direct legal representation, while also working on systemic reform projects in the areas of child welfare and Family Court.

Before coming to Penn Law, she was the Managing Attorney of the Family Defense Practice at The Bronx Defenders, where she created a groundbreaking interdisciplinary legal practice for parents involved in the child welfare system. Her areas of specialty include child welfare, parents’ rights and interdisciplinary practice focusing on law and social work collaboration. She has presented on best practices in child welfare and dependency cases, the collateral consequences of child welfare involvement and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her recent scholarship includes: Social Work Practice and the Law, co-authored with Dr. Lyn Slater, PhD (Springer Publishing, 2011).

email Kara Finck

Richard J. Gelles, PhD, is the Dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and holds the Joanne and Raymond Welsh Chair of Child Welfare and Family Violence. His book, The Violent Home, was the first systemic investigation of family violence and continues to be highly influential. He is the author or coauthor of 26 books and more than 100 articles and chapters on family violence. His latest books are The Book of David: How Preserving Families Can Cost Children's Lives (1996) and Intimate Violence in Families, Third Edition (Sage, 1997). He was a member of the National Academy of Science panel on "Assessing Family Violence Interventions."

email Richard Gelles > curriculum vitae (pdf) > homepage

Faculty Director 2003-2010
Alan M. Lerner, J.D., was a Practice Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He taught at the Interdisciplinary Child Advocacy Clinic, which he co-founded and co-taught, with Dr. Cindy Christian. In the Child Advocacy Clinic, law students team with medical and social work students to study the legal systems response to the problem of children not adequately cared for by their families, and to represent children in the role of Child Advocate in Dependency Court proceedings. Before joining the Law School faculty in1993, Professor Lerner practiced law for 25 years, primarily in the Philadelphia area.

Faculty Director Emeritus

Carol Wilson Spigner, DSW (formerly Carol W. Williams) is the Kenneth L. Pray Professor of Social Work. She joined the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work faculty in July 1999. Prior to her arrival at Penn, Dr. Wilson Spigner had been the Associate Commissioner of the Children's Bureau in the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families (ACF). In that role she was responsible for the implementation of the Family Preservation and Support Act, the Multi Ethnic Placement Act and the Adoption and Safe Families Act and oversight of related programs and services. Prior to joining ACF, Dr. Wilson Spigner was a senior associate at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, where her work focused on the reform of state child welfare systems through foundation and litigation efforts. She served as the director of the National Child Welfare Leadership Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which provided management and executive development seminars to child welfare leaders from across the nation. In 2006, Dr. Spigner was appointed by Mayor John Street to co-chair the Child Welfare Review Panel for the City of Philadelphia. Subsequently, she was appointed by Mayor Michael Nutter to co-chair the Department of Human Services Community Oversight Board for the City of Philadelphia in 2007. She continues to work and research in the area of child welfare system reform and to teach policy and macro practice.

email Carol Spigner > curriculum vitae (pdf) > homepage