Antonio Garcia

Dr. Antonio Garcia’s research is informed by his experience as a former Child Protective Services worker and supervisor in Washington State. Having broad interdisciplinary training in psychology, Spanish, social work, and services research, he is committed to effectively engaging community stakeholders to shrink the child welfare research-to-practice gap. Since he joined the School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2) at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012, he has focused on understanding epidemiological trends related to children of color’s experiences in foster care.

Currently, Dr. Garcia is motivated to develop and implement a research agenda that is locally grounded and contextually driven. While efficacy is well documented for several evidence-supported interventions, it is not clear what strategies will address contextual and organizational system-level barriers to implementing them, or what implementation conditions will ameliorate the gap between need for and use of interventions for the disproportionate number of African American and Latino children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. Several of Dr. Garcia’s projects aim to address these gaps, with a particular focus on ensuring leaders and caseworkers are equipped with the capacities, resources, and skills to prevent trauma and address the impact of adverse childhood experiences. His long-term career goal is to rely on science and community stakeholder input to develop effective dissemination and implementation strategies to promote the use of evidence-based or promising practices and policies for the racially/ethnically diverse pool of youth and families involved in multiple systems of care.

As former co-director of the child welfare and well-being (CW2) specialization at SP2, Dr. Garcia capitalized on his research and practice experience to educate the next generation of social workers dedicated to promoting child safety, permanency, and well-being. In January of 2019, Dr. Garcia accepted a faculty position at the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky, and he will serve as the director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Children and Families. While teaching, he relies on mixed pedagogical methods, including traditional in-person teaching, online teaching, and extended and intensive workshops where relevant case-based scenarios are introduced.