Robert Leibson Hawkins PHD
Assistant Professor of Social Work
McSilver Assistant Professor in Poverty Studies
PhD, MA Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis
University, MPA University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of
Government, BA Appalachian State University
rlh6@nyu.edu | (212) 998-5939
bio
Robert Leibson Hawkins is an Assistant Professor at NYU School of Social Work. Dr. Hawkins has nearly 10 years of teaching experience, and more than 15 years of experience in human services management and program development. He received his Ph.D. in Social Policy from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in 2002. Dr. Hawkins has expertise in family and children's policy analysis, welfare and poverty, program evaluation, quantitative and qualitative methods, and survey design and implementation. He also has extensive programming, research and teaching expertise in race, gender, and cultural competency issues.
Dr. Hawkins came to NYU from the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development and Department of Urban and Environmental Policy at Tufts University. He also has consulted and served on the social work faculties of numerous colleges and universities, including Boston College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He has teaching and research experience at Brandeis University, Duke University and the Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Hawkins has been an administrator and trainer in agencies addressing family needs for both children and older adults. He has worked with the Family & Children's Resource Center and the Center for Aging Research and Educational Services in North Carolina, the American Geriatrics Society in New York City, People for the American Way, and the University College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University. He served as an ethnographic researcher with Welfare, Children, and Families, a three-city longitudinal study lead by researchers from Harvard University, University of Texas-Austin, Penn State University, and Brandeis University. This study examined in detail the lives of low-income single mothers, their neighborhood and community networks, and how the women survive under welfare reform. In addition, Dr. Hawkins has served as an adviser and consultant for numerous other community, nonprofit and for-profit organizations. He speaks, writes and presents nationally on a range of related topics.
recent work
Dr. Hawkins's most recent research focuses on improving the lives of low-income families lead by single mothers. He is particularly interested in how low-income single mothers make successful transitions from welfare to positions of economic security. Further, Dr. Hawkins is interested in how these same families benefit from or are hurt by their personal social networks.
In addition to his doctorate, Dr. Hawkins holds a Master's degree in Social Policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, a Master's in Public Administration from the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.