Todd Franke, PhD, MSW

Associate Director, Center for Healthier Children, Families
and Communities

Associate Professor of Social Welfare

Todd Michael Franke, PhD, MSW received his MSW from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and his PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Franke's major areas of interest include quantitative methods and evaluation, the integration of health and social services in schools, and violence in the lives of children and adolescents. His specific areas of interest include the theory and applications of utilization-focused evaluations, the policy implications of school restructuring to integrate health and social services, and the association between family characteristics and violence in childhood and adolescence. Franke is presently an associate professor in UCLA's Department of Social Welfare and is the associate director of the Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities and is on the faculty of the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access (IDEA) in the Graduate School of Educational and Information Studies. Franke is currently responsible for the Department of Social Welfare's specialization in school social work and co-directs the PPS (Pupil Personnel Services) credentialing program.

Dr. Franke has conducted an extensive amount of evaluation work on the state and local level in a variety of areas. Currently, he is collaborating with SRI and CS&O in the evaluation of California's First 5 Initiative (formerly Prop. 10) including School Readiness. The goal of this evaluation is to understand and document the implementation and the effects of services and programs on children, families, communities, and systems of care in order to promote the most promising public policies to support children, families, and communities.

Franke is also implementing an evaluation of an effort by the State of California - Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP) to strengthen and integrate the child abuse prevention efforts in 12 small (population < 76,000) counties in California. Previously, he had designed and conducted an evaluation for OCAP to examine the various prevention focused activities sponsored in establishing a statewide, prevention-focused network of community-based family resource and support programs. Locally, he continues to work collaboratively with the 26 Los Angeles County Family Support Agencies in designing and implementing the yearly evaluation of family support.

Education

PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison

MSW, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Projects
First 5 Statewide Evaluation