Profiles
Yoonsook Ha
Yoonsook Ha, PhD, is a co-director of the Social Policy Analysis 
Working group and an Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Social Work. Yoonsook’s research focuses on access to resources available to low-income children, youth, and families, specifically the impact of child care, child support, and other socioeconomic resources on parental and child outcomes for low-income populations. Dr. Ha has an expert on using state administrative data, e.g., Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), child care licensing database, TANF and other data on publicprograms participations. She also has extensive experience with various types of secondary data analysis with national survey data. Yoonsook’s current research focuses on how various mechanisms of child care subsidy policies affect the availability and accessibility of child care subsidies, care arrangements, quality of care, and parental choice on care among low-income families. Yoonsook is also a Principal Investigator on a project examining academic outcomes of students who are involved in child welfare system in Massachusetts. Yoonsook is a ACF/HHS/OPRE Child Care Policy Research Scholar. She has published her work on peer-reviewed journals, such as Children and Youth Services Review, Social Service Review, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and Families in Society. Yoonsook received both her MSSW and PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work.
Please follow these links for a list of Dr. Ha’s projects and papers.
Thomas Byrne
Thomas Byrne, PhD is a co-director of the Social Policy Analysis Working Group and an Assistant Professor at the BU School of Social Work. Tom’s research focuses on homelessness and supported housing policy, with a particular focus on prevention-oriented approaches to homelessness. He also has an expertise in the use of administrative data for policy analysis and evaluation and is a strong advocate for the use of such data in policy research. In addition to his position at the BU School of Social Work, Tom is an Investigator at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans where he conducts research and evaluation in support of the VA’s plan to prevent and end homelessness among Veterans. His work has been published in academic journals spanning a number of disciplines including The American Journal of Public Health, Social Service Review, Psychiatric Services, and Housing Policy Debate. Tom is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Boston College from which he received a B.A. in economics. He received both his MSW and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice.
Please follow these links for a list of Dr. Byrne’s projects and papers.
Dan Miller
Daniel P. Miller, PhD is co-director of 
Social Policy Analysis Working Group and an Assistant Professor at the BU School of Social Work. Dan has a joint master’s degree in public policy and applied child development from Tufts University and a PhD in social policy analysis from the Columbia University of Social Work. His work is broadly focused on the well-being of low-income children and families with specific attention to child obesity and food insecurity, the impacts of food and nutrition assistance programs, and how father involvement affects outcomes for children. Dan was a visiting food assistance scholar at the University of Wisconsin, Madison IRP RIDGE Center in 2013. His published work has been featured in a number of journals including Child Development, The American Journal of Public Health, and Social Science and Medicine.
Please follow these links for a list of Dr. Miller’s projects and papers.
Maggie Thomas
Maggie Thomas joined the Boston University School of Social Work as a doctoral student in 2015.Maggie graduated Summa Cum Laude from The University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in History, focusing on the experience of minority groups in the United States, and a justice-oriented, interdisciplinary minor in Education, Schooling, and Society. She completed her MSW at The University of Illinois, concentrating on children, youth, families, and the systems they encounter. Maggie received several scholarships at The University of Illinois, including the Ron Moorman Child Welfare Award for her commitment to that field. In the past ten years Maggie has worked with community organizations and with children and families in numerous capacities, including developing programming for an after-school program serving at-risk teens, teaching in special education and early childhood classrooms, coordinating sexual violence prevention education on a college campus, and developing and facilitating youth and family programming in an LGTBQ community center. Maggie served as a supervisor and administrator in a child welfare organization, working directly with families and leading the ongoing development of the foster care and intact family programs. She also served as the President of the Board of Directors of The UP Center of Champaign County, the only LGBTQ community center serving central Illinois. Maggie is concentrating her doctoral research on systemic oppression and poverty, with a focus on the intersection of marginalized identities. She engages in research both to develop and to evaluate policies and programs designed to alleviate consequences, and ultimately to understand and eliminate root causes, of poverty and systemic oppression.
