The School of Social Work is proud to introduce our esteemed faculty members who have been named William and Helen Reichmann Research and Teaching Professors. These professors bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to our academic community, contributing to the excellence that defines the School of Social Work at SLU.
Shannon Cooper-Sadlo, Ph.D., M.S.W., LCSW (Teaching Professor)
Dr. Cooper-Sadlo is a graduate of the University of Denver MSW program and obtained her Ph.D. in Family Therapy from Saint Louis University. She is a Full Clinical Professor of Social Work at Saint Louis University. Her area of study is with women and families who have experienced incarceration and other family separation. She teaches clinical courses in both the BSSW and the MSW program. She has been in clinical practice with various populations for over 20 years and specializes in areas of couples/family therapy, substance use, co-occurring disorders, anxiety, and depression.
Dyan McGuire, Ph.D., J.D. (Teaching Professor)
M. Dyan McGuire is an Associate Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Saint
Louis University. She is the Director of the undergraduate and graduate Criminology
& Criminal Justice programs as well as the director of the 3+3 BA/JD Program. She
holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a Ph.D. in Criminology & Criminal
Justice from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Prior to entering academia, she
worked as an assistant attorney general for the State of Missouri, a judicial clerk
for the first female Justice on the Missouri Supreme Court and a defense attorney.
Her research interests include the intersection of law and practice, systemic race
and sex discrimination and violence as it impacts upon women both as victims and perpetrators.
Her first love is teaching, and she has developed numerous classes for SLU's CCJ curricula
including Multiculturalism for CJ Professionals, Understanding Serial Killers through
Criminology, and Issues in Jurisprudence.
Michael Vaughn, Ph.D. (Research Professor)
Michael G. Vaughn, Ph.D. is Professor, Associate Dean of Research, and Director of the Ph.D. program in the School of Social Work, at Saint Louis University. He has been a visiting Professor in the Graduate School of Social Welfare Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. His research agenda is comprised of several interrelated foci such as temperament and psychopathy, drug abuse, violence, school dropout, biosocial interplay, health and risk, and criminal justice that have resulted in more than 600 peer-reviewed scholarly publications. Although his work centers mainly in the fields of epidemiology, criminology, and social work, he intentionally ignores disciplinary boundaries and publishes in and reviews for a wide swath of journals.
Jin Huang, Ph.D., M.S.W. (Research Professor)
Jin Huang, Ph.D., M.S.W., specializes in global social policies, particularly focusing
on structural and institutional strategies to foster financial capability and asset-building
for all families, promoting financial inclusion and equity. Dr. Huang is one of the
co-leads of the network dedicated to "Building Financial Capability and Assets for
All," one of the 13 grand challenges for social work. His scholarly contributions
include over 100 articles published in peer-reviewed journals such as JAMA Pediatrics,
American Journal of Public Health, Social Science & Medicine, Social Science Research,
and Social Service Review. He is also a co-editor of the book "Inclusive Child Development
Accounts: Toward Universality and Progressivity" (2020, Routledge). With funding from
the Department of State and various foundations, Dr. Huang's research has encompassed
multiple countries including Azerbaijan, China, Ethiopia, Finland, Japan, Kazakhstan,
Mozambique, Singapore, Taiwan, and beyond. He has collaborated on numerous international
financial capability, asset-building, and Child Development Account policy projects.
His focus on global financial social work development, spanning education, research,
policy, and practice, has positively impacted millions of disadvantaged families across
four continents. In the United States, Dr. Huang's work focuses on asset-based social
policies for family financial capability promotion.
Julie Birkenmaier Ph.D., M.S.W., LCSW (Research Professor)
Julie Birkenmaier, PhD, MSW, is a Professor of Social Work at Saint Louis University School of Social Work. She is also a Faculty Director in Financial Capability at the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, and a Fellow for the Society for Social Work and Research. Her research focuses on financial capability and asset building practice, financial access, and personal financial credit. Her research has been funded by the National Endowment for Financial Education, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning and the Journal of Community Practice. Her recent scholarship has been published in such journals as the Journal of Consumer Affairs, the Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning, and Campbell Systematic Reviews. She is a co-author of Financial Capability and Asset-Building in Vulnerable Households (2018, Oxford University Press), and Financial Capability and Asset Building with Diverse Populations (2018, Routledge Press). She teaches financial capability and asset building practice, community practice, and policy practice. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and an B.A. and M.S.W. from Saint Louis University.