Shamra Boel-Studt, PhD, MSW
Director, Institute for Quality Children’s Services
Associate Professor, College of Social Work

Dr. Boel-Studt has 20 years of combined experience in practice, training and technical assistance, research, and evaluation spanning the child welfare, children’s mental health, and juvenile justice systems. Boel-Studt holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Coe College and both a MSW and PhD in Social Work from the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on the quality and effectiveness of services for children and youth served in out-of-home care settings. Dr. Boel-Studt has extensive experience collaborating with public and private agencies to promote quality services across child service systems. Her major contributions include developing and validating the Quality Standards Assessment for children’s out-of-home care. She serves as Principal Investigator, leading the development of Florida’s legislatively mandated statewide accountability system for residential care. She is also collaborating with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the University of Texas Health at San Antonio to lead the development of a comprehensive quality improvement and training platform as part of the Residential Treatment Center Project that aims to treat children with acute behavioral health needs while supporting family preservation.

Jonathan Huefner, PhD
Co-Director, Institute for Quality Children’s Services

Jon has a Ph.D. in Organizational Social Psychology and more than 39 years of experience conducting research in a wide range of contexts. Strengths include psychometrics, research methodology, statistical analysis, and reporting and presentations. He has spent the last 21 years conducting research at Boys Town. His current research focuses on quality standards for children and adolescent residential care, negative peer contagion in residential care settings, residential care advocacy, psychotropic medication use with at-risk children, family involvement and youth outcomes, and return on investment related to residential outcomes.

Desmond Maxwell, MSW
Professional Research Assistant, Institute for Quality Children’s Services

Desmond Maxwell graduated from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University with his bachelors in social work and is currently enrolled in the Florida State University’s Advanced Standing Clinical Social Work Program, seeking a masters and eventual license. Desmond also works as a professional research assistant for the Institute of Quality Children Services.

Darejan (Daji) Dvalishvili, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar, College of Social Work

Darejan (Daji) Dvalishvili is a postdoctoral fellow in the College of Social Work at Florida State University with a Ph.D. in Social Work and 10+ years of experience in research, monitoring, and evaluation services in systems-level initiatives in community, school, and child welfare settings. She is passionate about integrating principles of equity into the evaluations to ensure that the voices of all interested parties are heard and that the findings can inform policy, program development, and continuous improvement efforts. She is interested in both basic and applied research perspectives and is skilled in various research methods to produce actionable evidence.

Daji has a Ph.D. in Social Work from the Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, an MSW from Columbia University (New York, US), and an MD from Tbilisi State Medical University (Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia). Her research focuses on child and family well-being, the etiology and consequences of child maltreatment and other adverse childhood experiences, child protection and economic Interventions, child protection policies and system reforms. Her interests also include capacity building of the child protection workforce both in the US and globally. Toward that end, she has been working with UNICEF and other international and local non-profit organizations for several years.

Esaa Mohammad Sabti Samarah, MSW
Research Assistant, College of Social Work

Esaa Mohammad Sabti Samarah is a doctoral student in the FSU College of Social Work. Esaa earned his MSW from FSU in 2019 and practiced as a Child Protective Investigator in the state of Florida for just under two years. Esaa also has practice experience in middle school settings where he served as a Personal Care Assistant for adolescents with special healthcare needs. His research interests are strongly informed by practice experience and focus on examining decision making among child welfare professionals. Esaa joined the Institute in 2022 to collaborate on enhancing quality in residential care for children and their families.

Robynn Johnson, ADN
Parent Advisor, College of Social Work

Robynn Johnson, ADN is a former nurse who started out in the medical surgical field but found her passion working in the correctional system. While employed at the local county jail, Robynn enjoyed working with a special needs intra-disciplinary team. The team consisted of security staff, medical staff and mental health staff. The goal of the team was to ensure that clients with special needs were identified and provided adequate resources both in jail and upon release or transferred to another correctional facility. It was during this time that Robynn became aware of the lack of resources needed for the most vulnerable populations and the difficulty in navigating the system in order to acquire the resources for those in need.

Not only did Robynn deal with the frustration of securing resources in her professional life; she also has a more personal understanding of the need for early intervention. Her son Dylan, who is now 17, suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was just 3 years old. He was left with a large cognitive deficit, physical impairments, is medically fragile and has very aggressive behaviors. Four years ago, Robynn made the agonizing decision to commit her son for emergency in-patient services which became the beginning of a long and frustrating journey. Robynn has seen firsthand the positive aspects of pediatric residential care. Dylan is now thriving in a group home with a more structured environment and has a professional team available 24-7 to meet his needs. In providing her personal knowledge and experience, Robynn is hoping to help de-stigmatize the need for and make it easier to obtain pediatric residential services for those who desperately need it. She is hoping her personal experiences can help show where the system is working and where it needs to be improved.

Amy Greenwald, MA
Training Specialist, College of Social Work

Amy has over 20 years of experience in the juvenile justice and child welfare system in Florida. Amy holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Florida and a master’s degree from the University of Central Florida. She has years of field experience as well as a robust career in policy development, training, best practices, and research at the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. Amy also has personal experience as a proud mother of her daughter who was adopted though the child welfare system.