Associate Professor and Deputy Dean for Curriculum, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Faculty Affiliate, Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture; Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality Studies; Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation
Fellow, Center for Health Administration Studies
The University of Chicago
Waldo E. Johnson, Jr. conducts research that examines male roles in urban families and communities, including fatherhood statuses and involvement among African American males and how the physical and mental health statuses among African American pre- and adolescent males affect their assumption and performance of subsequent adult roles across the life course. He has published extensively on nonresident fatherhood, the social construction of masculinity, and the life course roles and experiences of urban African American males.
He is co-investigator for the Chicago Fathers and Sons Study, dyad study that examines nonresident African American fathers’ efforts via their communication intervention to keep their sons from engaging and adopting negative health behaviors in collaboration for the K.L.E.O. Center in Washington Park. He is also co-investigator for the African American Social Support Effectiveness Treatment-Partners for Perinatal Depression, which provides skills and training to African American fathers to support their pre- and post-pregnancy partners diagnosed with perinatal depression. He is co-principal Investigator for the Black Fathers Food Insecurity Study, which examines Black men’s perceptions and experiences with food insecurity and how their perceptions and experiences affect their involvement with their children, families, and communities. Johnson is also co-principal investigator for the Flint (Michigan) Adolescent Fathers Study funded by Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Chicago Fathers and Sons Communication Study, a joint University of Chicago and Chapin Hall Research Award.
He currently serves as consultant to ACF/Mathematica Fatherhood, Relationships, and Marriage Illuminating the Next Generation Workgroup. His affiliations include the Poverty and Transitions to Adulthood Network, IRP, University of Wisconsin Madison, the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health at the UM School of Public Health, and the Scholars Network on Black Men and Boys of the University of Michigan. He served as methods consultant for Parents and Children Together, the Mathematica Policy Research-led federal responsible fatherhood and healthy marriage research initiative of HHS; a member of the ACF Welfare Research and Family Self-Sufficiency Technical Working Group, a member of the APA’s Public Interest Directorate Working Group on Health Disparities in Men and Boys; and the Temple University Fatherhood Research and Practice Network Advisory. He also served as the inaugural co-chair of the Council on Social Work Education Commission on Research.
Johnson earned a BA in sociology and English at Mercer University, MSW at the University of Michigan, and PhD in social work at the University of Chicago. He is the editor of Social Work with African American Males: Health, Mental Health and Social Policy (2010, Oxford University Press).