Pajarita Charles

Lab website: Lab for Family Wellbeing & Justice

Pajarita Charles is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at UW-Madison. Her research centers on the development, implementation, and testing of family-focused preventive interventions to promote positive outcomes for children and families affected by the criminal justice system. Dr. Charles’ work also includes fostering research, practice, and public sector partnerships to build capacity for criminal justice reform. She is currently the principal investigator of a 5-year NICHD K99/R00 study that focuses on the development and testing of an intervention with fathers recently released from prison to improve parent and child outcomes through father engagement, high-quality parenting and relationship skills, and extended family involvement. She is also co-investigator of a study to improve family visits between children and parents incarcerated in jail through coaching during jail and home visits and using in-home video chat. She received her PhD from the School of Social Work at UNC-Chapel Hill and joint Master’s degrees in social work and public administration from Columbia University.