Biography

Dr. Hartinger-Saunders has over 30 years of experience in child welfare with 11 years of practice experience in public child welfare. Her primary area of research examines multi-level factors associated with child welfare outcomes. She applies an intersectional lens in her research examining how various factors (e.g., race, ethnicity, poverty, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc.) influence the experiences and trajectories of children and youth due to the overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination associated with each.

Broad Research Interests include the effects of trauma on children, youth, and families; the impact of child welfare and juvenile justice system involvement; child maltreatment and adult opioid use; trauma, violent juvenile offending, and opioid use; the experiences of LGBTQ-identified youth experiencing homelessness with previous system involvement; child welfare workforce development; technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and social work education, trauma-informed teaching.

Administrative Roles:
Dr. Hartinger-Saunders is the Principal Investigator (PI) and Program Director of the GSU Title IV-E Child Welfare Education and Training Program. She has managed over 3.9 million dollars in Title IVE contracts since 2015. In July 2024, Dr. Saunders was appointed as the Statewide PI Lead for the university partners in the GA Title IVE Child Welfare Consortium. She was also the Program Director and PI for the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) Workforce Excellence Program from 2019-2023. The NCWWI project was a four-year, $703,000 grant funded by the Children’s Bureau through SUNY Albany.

Research:
Early in her career, Dr. Hartinger-Saunders examined family, peer, and neighborhood factors contributing to young men’s victimization and criminal offending in Buffalo, NY. She conducted the 2012 National Adoptive Families Study, which explored the emotional, social, psychological, and practical experiences of adoptive families who adopt children from the child welfare system. She was a co-investigator on the 2015 Atlanta Youth Count and Needs Assessment (AYCNA) with Principal Investigators Dr. Eric Wright and Dr. Erin Ruel in the Department of Sociology. Her most recent work with Dr. Forge and Dr. Snyder in the SSW examines risk and protective factors among Atlanta youth experiencing homelessness, specifically LGBTQ-identified youth with previous child welfare and juvenile justice system involvement.