Maria Florence, PhD, is a research psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. She is currently employed as the Deputy Dean of Learning and Teaching in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences. She completed her PhD, in the area of adolescent substance use and continues to conduct research in the area of substance use in low socioeconomic status communities in and around Cape Town, South Africa. Some of her research includes developing substance use interventions for pregnant women and early adolescents in rural areas in the Western Cape. As an academic her focus has been on teaching research methods and skills at under- and postgraduate levels. She served as the programme coordinator for the professional programme in research psychology. She is dedicated to developing well-trained research psychologists who hail from disadvantaged backgrounds so that they can conduct socially responsive research to address the psycho-social challenges of South African society. Wouter Vanderplasschen, PhD, is Associate Professor and head of the Department of Special Needs Education at Ghent University, Belgium.
He is a senior researcher in the field of substance use treatment and recovery. He published over 150 articles in international peer-reviewed journals about addiction, treatment and recovery. He has also written several book publications and is a co-editor of the journal Drugs: Education, Prevention, Policy. Wouter Vanderplasschen acts as a reviewer for several international peer-reviewed journals and presented his work at various national and international alcohol and drug conferences. Mansoo Yu, PhD, is Professor of Social Work and Public Health at the College of Health Sciences, University of Missouri (MU), USA. He serves as Director of the PhD program in social work and Director of the MU Center for Children and Families Across Cultures. The overall goal of his research has been to provide empirical evidence to support practice and policy that address health disparity particularly among underserved/vulnerable populations across the globe. He serves as associate editor of the Journal of the Society for Social Work Research and Evidence-Based Practice and on the editorial board of BMC Public Health.
Dr. Yu''s scholarship is known for its public impact by being cited by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (USDHHS), and by mass media such as TIME, UPI, and Fortune. Prof. Yu has about 90 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and has served on dissertation/thesis committees for about 60 graduate students. He has been serving on scientific panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the USDHHS Office of Minority Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the National Research Foundation of Korea. Jessica De Maeyer, PhD, holds a doctoral degree from the Department of Orthopedagogics, Ghent University (Belgium).
In 2010 she successfully defended her PhD on the quality of life of opiate-dependent individuals after starting methadone maintenance treatment. From 2010 until 2012 she worked as a post-doctoral researcher on different research projects: ''analysis and optimalisation of substitution treatment in Belgium'', ''poly drug use and mental health of drug users seeking treatment'' and ''outreach with hard-to-reach populations''. From 2012 to date Dr De Maeyer is a lecturer at the Department of Social Educational Care Work, University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HOGENT), Flanders, Belgium. She is the coordinator of EQUALITY//ResearchCollective, an interdisciplinary research center within HOGENT that aims to counter the social exclusion of human beings in vulnerable living situations and to improve their quality of life and the guarantee of human rights. Jessica De Maeyer has extensive research experience (quantitative and qualitative), both in doing research herself as well as in coordinating. Her most important areas of research are quality of life, user perspectives, knowledge by experience, recovery, outreach and community-based support, harm reduction, and the support of people in vulnerable living situations in general. Her research often uses arts-based research methods to tackle societal challenges and aims for social change. Shazly Savahl, PhD, is a registered research psychologist and Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
He obtained master''s and doctoral degrees from the University of the Western Cape/Ghent University, funded through the Vlaamse Interuniversiteit Raad Doctoral Scholarship Programme. His research interests include the study of childhood, children''s subjective well-being, child well-being indicators and social psychology. He is the principal investigator of the Children''s Worlds International Survey on Children''s Well-Being, and the Multinational Qualitative Study on Children''s Understanding of their Well-Being. He is a founding and current executive member of the South African Positive Psychology Association, a member of the National Children''s Rights Intersectoral Coordinating Committee and the International Society for Child Indicators.