Dr. Drake researches matters of child welfare. His work focuses on early intervention cases of child neglect and the connections between socio-environmental conditions and child neglect. His current research analyses census and child protective data to assess the efficacy of protective and preventative services. His background includes being a child maltreatment investigator in California, and his research interests grew from this background and include community factors and child maltreatment risk, child maltreatment prevention, the intersection of race and poverty, and screening practices and policies related to maltreatment. Dr. Drake teaches doctoral level classes on research methodology (lead author of Social Work Research Methods. From conceptualization to dissemination 2008), evidence-based practice in graduate education, and theory associated with child and family practice and policy.He is Principal Investigator of one of three national grants charged with examining how substantiation status in child welfare was associated with system response and future risk and I continue to do research and professional training related to understanding this issue. Dr. Drake is additionally PI of a CDC grant looking at violence in young adulthood among those with child histories of maltreatment.  He is also engaged in work looking at the intersection of race and poverty and how that relates to reported maltreatment and other social indicators. Dr. Drake serves as Co-director of the Education Team and member of the Research Methods Team of the CDC funded Brown Center for Violence and Injury Prevention. Service experience includes consultation and evaluation with several state and local child welfare agencies, adhoc reviewer for Administration of Children and Families and CDC, and current work with the American Humane Association regarding training child welfare administrators on the implications of research regarding the use of substantiation in child welfare. Dr. Drake was recently a recipient of the North American Resource Center for Child Welfare 2010 Pro Humanitate Award.

Collaborative interests:

I am engaged in collaborative work with other Institute scholars related to transdisciplinary training programs regarding child maltreatment and family violence, as well as research on child abuse and neglect. My interests in the intersection of community, race and child maltreatment are also relevant to public health initiatives in the area of disparities, with a focus more on social rather than health services.