José B. Ashford
José B. Ashford is a professor of social work, law and science at Arizona State University, where he is also an affiliate professor of criminology, criminal justice and sociology. Dr. Ashford is an affiliate faculty member in applied social sciences at the Sapienza University of Rome in the Department of Social Sciences and Economics. He testifies around the country about human development issues as a social history and life course expert in the assessment of mitigating factors in capital murder and juvenile lifer cases. He directs the joint graduate certificate in the School of Social Work with the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice in criminal sentencing and sentencing advocacy, and his research lab is at the Arizona Justice Project at Sandra Day O’Conner College of Law. He has published widely in areas dealing with the assessment, classification, and treatment of special need offenders; forensic social work; mitigation of punishment; and sentencing juvenile homicide offenders.
Craig W. LeCroy
Dr. Craig LeCroy is an elected fellow in the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology of the American Psychological Association. He has directed several projects for children and adolescents, including a Children's Bureau grant focused on home visitation for parents of young children, a National Institute of Mental Health Training Grant for children with mental disorders, and several prevention projects including substance abuse prevention, teen pregnancy prevention, and Go Grrrls, a primary prevention program for early adolescent females. Professor LeCroy has published widely in the areas of home visitation in children's mental health, social skills training with youth, and risk and needs assessment with juvenile offenders. He is the author of 14 books, including Handbook of Evidence Based Treatment Manuals for Children and Youth, Case Studies with Children, Adolescents and Families, and First Person Accounts of Mental Illness and Recovery.
Lela Rankin
Lela Rankin is a professor in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University. Dr. Rankin has interdisciplinary training in psychology and human development and family studies. She regards cultural and familial relationships as critical influences on development from infancy through adulthood. She has collected, analyzed and published data from several long-term longitudinal studies and community-based intervention studies in the areas of infant-temperament, mother-infant bonding, parenting and parenting interventions, adolescent substance use and prevention, dating violence, juvenile desistance and sexual education across the lifespan.
