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Dana M. Prince, PhD, MPH (she/her) applies her expertise in social welfare, public health, and community-based system dynamics to address the mental health and service needs of multiply minoritized youth involved in public systems, including child welfare, juvenile court, and homelessness services. These include young adults ‘aging out’ of foster care, pregnant and parenting youth, and LGBTQ+ youth. 

Dr. Prince uses an affirming and strengths-based approach to LGBTQ+ youth development, which validates a wide range of identities as normal and healthy and addresses the impact of society-driven bias and discrimination on queer and trans youth health and wellbeing. Dr. Prince’s recent and most current federally funded program of research aims to develop, implement, and evaluate multi-level interventions designed to target empirically based mechanisms (e.g. stigma, rejection and abuse) that drive mental health disparities for LGBTQ+ youth in public systems, and build factors (e.g. peer support, community belonging, chosen family/kin networks, and self-affirming beliefs) to promote wellness and empowerment. 

Dr. Prince is a queer femme who has advocated on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community for over twenty-five years. Her work is informed by critical theories including intersectional feminism, queer theory, disability theory, and critical race theory. As a teenager, Dr. Prince engaged in queer activism and advocacy which informed her deep-seated value of youth-centered participatory research methods and practice approaches. Her work prioritizes lived experiences in all facets of intervention development and implementation. For example, harnessing the power of peer support specialists to reduce self-injurious thoughts and behaviors among LGBTQ+ youth involved in public systems. Or, investigating the impact of states' anti-transgender policy on the adolescent behavioral workforce and trans youth mental healthcare delivery. Dr. Prince is an advocate for increased workforce training on best practices for working with queer and transgender youth and their families. 

Dr. Prince is an Associate Professor at the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at �ǿմ�ý. Prior to joining the faculty, Dr. Prince completed her NIDA-funded T32 postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine.

Biosketch
Curriculum Vitae

Why I Teach

I approach teaching from the perspective that we are all learners, and we are all teachers. I have taught in K-12 public schools, community spaces, and higher education. In social work education, I endeavor to co-create vulnerable and authentic learning spaces with my students. Central questions that drive my teaching include those related to power, knowledge (What ‘counts’), and belief systems. I love teaching theory because it is more than just “ideas.” Theory shapes our perspectives, beliefs, and actions. Theory shapes the material (“real”) world. It is that possibility for personal and collective transformation that motivates me to teach.

Why I Chose this Profession

I am inspired by the radical tradition of community social workers who fought and advocated for basic human rights and improvements to the lives of the most marginalized. At its best, social work challenges the status quo and advances equity and justice.