Sarah Zak, PhD Student

Sarah is a doctoral student in Experimental Psychology working under the supervision of Dr. Elisa Romano in the Children’s Well-being lab at the University of Ottawa. Generally, her research interests include child welfare, child maltreatment with a focus on neglect, trauma-informed program evaluation and child rights. Her dissertation aims to evaluate the usage of a child neglect-focused parenting program in child welfare agencies across Ontario. More specifically, she is interested in how neglect presents within these agencies (e.g., reporting, assessments, interventions) and then she aims to evaluate how an evidence-based program which focuses on neglect (SafeCare) functions to address these issues within families. She works on her research in collaboration with the CIHR-funded SafeCare project within her lab and McMaster University with Dr. Andrea Gonzalez. Sarah is also actively involved with research projects that examines AFCCA (aggression towards families/caregivers in childhood and adolescence) as well as trauma-informed care and ACEs within a health care setting.