Faculty Fridays IRL featuring Samanth Francois, PhD.

Join us in the CIL for a quick discussion with faculty about research, current events and issues within their field of study and expertise.

About our Featured Faculty: 

Samantha Francois, PhD is an Assistant Professor and Sonja Bilger Romanowski Early Career Professor at Tulane University’s School of Social Work specializing in adolescent development, racism-based trauma, structural violence, and anti-racist research. Dr. Francois is also an executive director of Tulane University’ Violence Prevention Institute. As an interdisciplinary, community-engaged developmental scientist, Dr. Francois’ research uses systems perspectives and critical race theory to understand the intersections of individual, community, and cultural factors on mental health and educational outcomes in African American youth. She also explores social justice activism and organizing as a protective factor for African American adolescents exposed to neighborhood and structural violence, and she investigates trauma-informed policies and practices in youth-serving community-based organizations and youth conceptualizations of neighborhood and violence using community-based participatory approaches. Dr. Francois designs and executes research through an anti-racist and intersectional lens aimed at social transformation and community liberation. Dr. Francois has a doctorate in psychological sciences from Tulane University.