Kerrie Ocasio, MSW, PhD

Kerrie Ocasio

Associate Professor
Anderson Hall, Room 446
KOcasio@wcupa.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Degrees

  • PhD, Social Work: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  • MSW: Fordham University
  • BASW: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Main areas of interest

  • Help-seeking and engagement in social services
  • Foster care services and well-being outcomes
  • Racial disparities in child welfare
  • Implementation Science informed evaluations
  • Practice-based service evaluation

Inspiration

Much of my education has been obtained while working full-time and caring for a family. Many of the students that I teach are similarly juggling a lot while pursuing their dreams. I'm thrilled to work in a department that consciously and deliberately works to support the students, while also providing them with a high-quality education that will prepare them to be leaders in the social work field. 

Presentations & Publications

Presentations

  • Ocasio, K. & Van Alst, D. (2015, January). Risk, resiliency, and protective factors: Influences on foster parent retention. Paper presented at the Society for Social Work Research Annual Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana.
  • Ocasio, K. (2010, January). An examination of the relationship between public child welfare involvement, motivation for substance abuse treatment, and treatment dropout for mothers of minor children. Paper presented at the Society for Social Work Research Annual Conference, San Francisco, California.
  • Rolock, N., White, K., Ocasio, K., Zhang, L., MacKenzie, M., & Fong, R. (2018, July). A comparison of foster care reentry after adoption in two large U.S. states. In N. Rolock (Chair), An examination of post-adoption experiences of children, young adults, and families in the U.S. Symposium accepted for the International Conference on Adoption Research 6, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • Rolock, N., White, K., Ocasio, K., Zhang, L., MacKenzie, M., & Fong, R. (2018, April). A comparison of foster care reentry after adoption in two large U.S. states. Poster presentation accepted for the 2018 Rudd Adoption Research New Worlds of Adoption Conference and winner of the “Outstanding Poster Presentation Award”.
  • Shpiegel, S. & Ocasio, K. (2015, July). Patterns of functioning among older youth in foster care: A cluster analysis. Paper presented at the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children Annual Colloquium, Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Ocasio, K. & Morton, C. (2010, October). Where does the responsibility lie for racial disproportionality in child welfare? Paper presented at the Council on Social Work Education’s 56th Annual Program Meeting, Portland, Oregon.
  • Ocasio, K., Morton, C., & Blake, A. (2009, November). Disproportionality in child welfare: Examining inequity in a racially diverse state. Paper presented at the Council on Social Work Education’s 55th Annual Program Meeting, San Antonio, Texas.
  • Ayers, C., Ocasio, K., Fay, K. P., Riley, M., & Kisor, A. (2018, April). Virginia Children’s Services Practice Model Implementation Study. Paper accepted for the Child Welfare League of America 2018 National Conference, Washington, D.C.
  • Ocasio, K., White, K. R., Rolock, N., & Fong, R. (2018, January). Using administrative data to target prevention efforts: A longitudinal examination of outcomes post adoption. In N. Rolock (Chair), Using intervention research to improve permanency services for foster children and youth: Initial results from the National Quality Improvement Center for Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation Project. Symposium presented for the Society for Social Work Research Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.
  • Ocasio, K., Forsythe, M., & Diaz, C. (2018, June). Psychological Assessment Tools: An Exploration of Usage and Appropriateness for Child Welfare Forensic Evaluations. Poster presentation accepted for the American Professional Society for Abused Children (APSAC) 25th Annual Colloquium, New Orleans, Louisiana.
  • Hubel, G., Klika, B., Lanier, P. J., Maquire-Jack, K., Geiger, J. M., Neugut, T. B., & Ocasio, K. (2013, January). Making the stakes and stakeholders in child maltreatment visible: A discussion of innovative approaches to prevention research design and methodology. Paper presented at the Society for Social Work Research Annual Conference, San Diego, California.
  • Van Alst, D. & Ocasio, K. (2010, October). Finding the “Field” in social work research. Paper presented at the Council on Social Work Education’s 56th Annual Program Meeting, Portland, Oregon.

Publications

  • Koivunen, J., Van Alst, D., Ocasio, K., & Allegra, C. (2017). Understanding engagement in mental health services for preschool children: An analysis of teacher, clinician, and parent perspectives. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(3), 313-320.
  • Walsh, T. B., McCourt, S. N., Rostad, W. L., Byers, K., & Ocasio, K. (2015). Promoting protective factors and strengthening resilience. In D. Daro, A. Cohn Donnolly. L. A. Huang, & B. J. Powell (Eds.), Advances in child abuse prevention knowledge: The perspective of new leadership (203-233). New York: Springer Publishing
  • Rolock, N., White, K. R., Ocasio, K., Zhang, L., MacKenzie, M. J., & Fong, R. (2018). A comparison of foster care reentry after adoption in two large U.S. states. Research on Social Work Practice, 10.1177/1049731518783857
  • Shpiegel, S. & Ocasio, K. (2015). Functioning patterns among older adolescents in foster are: Results from a cluster analysis. Children and Youth Services Review, 58, 227-235.
  • Ocasio, K., Morton, C., & Simmel, C.  (2013). An exploration of child welfare investigation disparity differences between states. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 7(1), 79-97.
  • Morton, C. M., Ocasio, K. & Simmel, C. (2011). A critique of methods used to describe the overrepresentation of African Americans in the child welfare system. Children and Youth Services Review, 33(9), 1538-1542.
  • Rolock, N., Ocasio, K., Webb, J., Fleary-Simmons, D., Cohen, L., & Fong, R. (Accepted.) Implementation science and prevention in action: Application in a post-permanency world. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work.
  • Ocasio, K., Van Alst, D., Koivunen, J., Huang, C. C., & Allegra, C. (2014). Improving social emotional development in at-risk preschoolers through a combination of universal and selected approaches. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 10.1007/s10826-014-9983-7.

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