About Elspeth
Dr. Slayter is a Professor in the School of Social Work who does disability services research related to addictions and child welfare.
She teaches social welfare policy, research, evaluation, disability practice and forensic social work courses at Salem State since 2005. Dr. Slayter has also taught practice evaluation at Simmons University’s School of Social Work, introductory social welfare policy at Boston College’s School of Social Work and a course on qualitative research methods for public policy research at the United Nations University-MERIT program in the Netherlands.
Dr. Slayter obtained both a master’s and doctoral degree in social welfare policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University where her scholarship focused on the disability and health policy arenas. During her time at Heller, Dr. Slayter was a pre-doctoral trainee supported by the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) and an American Fellow supported by the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Dr. Slayter received her Master’s degree in social work at New York University in 1995 after completing her undergraduate work in history (with a focus on women’s studies, medical history and medical anthropology) at Macalester College in 1990.
Prior to her doctoral work, between 1995-2000, Dr. Slayter practiced as a forensic social worker in a variety of court-based settings in New York City. These settings included Washington Square Legal Services, where Dr. Slayter partnered with New York University law students in the co-representation of parents charged with child abuse and/or neglect. Dr. Slayter went on to work as a social worker and educational consultant for the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division in Brooklyn, where she partnered with guardians ad litem in the representation of children on cases related to child protection, juvenile justice and special education law. Dr. Slayter also worked as a social worker in partnership with public defenders at The Bronx Defenders, an early adopter of the “holistic advocacy” model of criminal defense. In the Bronx, Dr. Slayter developed a special interest in the behavioral health concerns of people with disabilities (especially people with intellectual disabilities).
Dr. Slayter’s research has been published in a range of peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, Dr. Slayter has presented her research at a range of domestic and international conferences in both sociology, social work, psychology and public health.
Elspeth Slayter’s Google Scholar page
Professional Interests
–Implementation of the “dignity of risk” concept for people with disabilities in community life
–Access to care, quality of care and pathways to and through addiction treatment and child welfare services for people with disabilities in the United States
–Child protection social work with immigrant children and families in the United States (with Dr. Katrin Kriz, Emmanuel College)
A bit on my life before academia…
I received a B.A. in History (with a focus on medical history, medical anthropology and women’s studies) from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. My choice to study medical history and anthropology was largely informed by my involvement as an intern at both the Upper Midwest Women’s History Center (now part of The Clio Project) and with Cultural Survival, Inc. I also did a small study on cross-cultural conflict between western biomedically-focused health care providers and (then-new) Hmong immigrants from Laos (an issue which has since been well-described in the wonderful book by Ann Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down). Inspired by travel to the former Soviet Union in 1984 and 1985 (Russiaand Georgia) and Spain, I also studied these two languages while at “Mac.”
My first job out of college was with the University of Minnesota YW (a YWCA affiliate ) as a Program Coordinator within a unique collective stewardship structure. At the U-YW, I worked on community organizing projects related to the elimination of racism, sexism and homophobia. After leaving Minnesota, I went on to work as a Development Associate for Cambridge College, a small, adult education-focused college in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These post-college foundational experiences further informed my professional commitment to social justice.
Later, I studied for an M.S.W. from New York University’s Shirley M. Ehrenkranz School of Social Work, where I trained with Metropolitan Hospital Center’s HIV/AIDS inpatient team and with New York University School of Law’s Family Defense Clinic. At the Clinic, I partnered with law students representing parents, grandparents and foster parents charged with abuse or neglect in the New York City Family Courts. While a social work student, I was also involved with the Student Social Work Action Coalition (SSWAC) which was active in the anti-welfare reform movement of the mid-1990s.
After receiving my M.S.W., I practiced as a forensic social worker from 1995-2000. During this time, I first partnered with attorneys at the Juvenile Rights Division (JRD) of the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn, New York . At JRD, attorney-social worker teams represented youth in special education settings, youth charged with juvenile delinquency or status offenses (i.e. CHINS, or PINS cases in Massachusetts parlance) and subject children on abuse, neglect, custody and/or adoption cases. Work conducted at JRD consisted of investigation, assessment, case management, systems navigation and both education law and court-based advocacy.
Later, interested in building a bridge between family court and criminal court practice, I went on to work for The Bronx Defenders, an alternative, community-based public defender office in the South Bronx. Here, I partnered with attorneys representing adult criminal defendants using a “holistic advocacy” co-representation approach article by Robin Steinberg on this topic). At the Bronx Defenders, my work involved crisis counseling and assessment, intensive case management, inter-system navigation with regard to child protection concerns and both court and community-based advocacy.
During this time, I began to specialize in working with people with disabilities who had co-occurring behavioral health conditions and became interested in the challenges of inter-system collaboration. Interested in moving beyond individual-level advocacy, I decided to build my research and policy analysis skills.
I moved back home to Boston and later received a Ph.D. in social policy (focusing on behavioral health services research) from Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management where I was a National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (N.I.A.A.A. ) pre-doctoral trainee and an American Fellow with the National Association of University Women (A.A.U.W.). While a doctoral student at Heller, I worked on projects related to childhood injury among Medicaid beneficiaries , access to health insurance among Spanish-speaking immigrants to the United States and substance abuse among people with disabilities. Building on my most challenging problems at The Bronx Defenders, my dissertation research examined access to substance abuse treatment among people with intellectual disabilities.