Sean Joe


Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development

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Sean Joe is a nationally recognized authority on suicidal behavior among Black Americans, and is expanding the evidence base for effective practice with Black boys and young men. He writes about Community Science as a new perspective on knowledge co-produced by academic researchers and community members, which has the potential to enrich science by broadening our participatory research theories, designs, analytical methods, and the use of technological innovation.  Joe’s epistemological work focuses on the concept of race in medical and social sciences.

Working within the Center for Social Development, Joe has launched the Race and Opportunity Lab, which examines race, opportunity, and social mobility in the St. Louis region, working to reduce inequality in adolescents transition into adulthood. The lab leading community science project is HomeGrown STL, which is a multi-systemic placed-based capacity building intervention to enhance upward mobility opportunities and health of Black males ages 12-29 years in the St. Louis region. 

He is exploring new opportunities for engaging in larger-scale policy experiments by using data to examine wealth inequalities and barriers to wealth building for Black men. This includes understanding unequal labor market outcomes for men and the regional system-level factors that impact economic conditions in low- to moderate-income communities, which serve as barriers to equity in economic mobility, earnings, and capital access for Black workers.  

He serves on the Advisory Committee of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Gun Violence Research and Education, as well as on the boards of the St. Louis Education Fund and the American Academy for Social Work and Social Welfare.

In recognition of the impact of his work, Joe was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, the Society for Social Work and Research, the New York Academy of Medicine, and a Community Development Research Fellow of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

In the media

U.S. Needs a Behavioral Health ‘CARES’ Act Now — Here’s What It Must Include

Now is the time for decisive leadership and policy action, informed by the available or new behavioral health science. America might be approaching a tidal wave of despair and our behavioral health systems cannot adequately prepare without prudent federal legislative action, writes Sean Joe.

Stories

HomeGrownSTL wins Social Justice Innovation Award

HomeGrownSTL wins Social Justice Innovation Award

HomeGrown STL, a Brown School program aimed at improving community-level capacity to reduce inequality in Black adolescents’ healthy transition to adulthood, has won an inaugural Social Justice Innovation Award from financial firm Morgan Stanley and the nonprofit Centri Tech Foundation.
U.S. Needs a Behavioral Health ‘CARES’ Act Now — Here’s What It Must Include

U.S. Needs a Behavioral Health ‘CARES’ Act Now — Here’s What It Must Include

America might be approaching a tidal wave of despair and our behavioral health systems cannot adequately prepare without prudent federal legislative action. After all the many congressional legislative phases of economic stimulus relief, behavioral care relief is also needed. Our future depends on the decisions we make today.
Disparities in educational experiences of black youth

Disparities in educational experiences of black youth

A more comprehensive picture of mental health that includes subjective well-being and other positive mental health characteristics could lead to more successful educational experiences among black youth, finds a recent study from Sean Joe, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.
Community forum to focus on gun suicide

Community forum to focus on gun suicide

In the United States, there are more than 32,000 deaths per year from gun violence. More than 60 percent of those are from suicides. These issues and more will be discussed during “Guns, Suicide and Safety: A Community Forum,” at 3 p.m. Monday, Feb. 15, in Hillman Hall’s Clark-Fox Forum.

Washington People: Sean Joe

A Q&A with Sean Joe, PhD, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at the Brown School, who came to Washington University in St. Louis this fall from the University of Michigan. His research focuses on black adolescents’ mental health; the role of religion in black suicidal behavior; and the development of father-focused, family-based interventions to prevent black adolescent males from engaging in multiple forms of self-destructive behaviors.