Susan L. Parish, PhD, MSW

Susan L. Parish, PhD, MSW is Dean of the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Health Professions. She is currently co-director of the National Research Center for Parents with Disabilities, and a member of the board of the American Association on Health and Disability.

Prior to joining VCU, she was Dean of Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University and the Nancy Lurie Marks Professor of Disability Policy and Director of the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University.

She is a public health and social work researcher who investigates the health and financial well-being of children and adults with disabilities, and their caregiving families. She is an expert in how people with disabilities are impacted by Medicaid, TANF, SSI, and SSDI policy. She is a prolific scholar, with more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her work has been supported by nearly $20 million from foundations, NIH, and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), among others.

She has won numerous national awards including the Research Award from the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabiilties (2019), the Padgett Early Career Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work and Research (2009), the Research Matters! award from the Arc of the United States (2009). She is a Fellow of the American Association of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities and a Fellow of the Society for Social Work Research. She is a member of the National Academy on Social Insurance.

Dr. Parish’s disability, health, and poverty policy expertise is widely sought. She has testified in state and federal lawsuits, and she has been quoted by PBS NewsHour, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, Psychology Today, and the Huffington Post.