Julia M. Kobulsky, PhD, is an applied social scientist specializing in child maltreatment. The overarching goal of her scholarship is to improve the health and well-being of children and families. Her research contributes knowledge to the pathways linking child maltreatment dimensions (e.g., various subtypes, levels of severity, developmental timing) to adolescent health outcomes, especially substance use. It includes specialized focuses on child neglect as a specific form of maltreatment and the conceptualization and measurement of child maltreatment. The second area concerns child welfare systems. It has included research examining disparities in child protective services outcomes associated with parent race and gender and implementation of a pilot training in adoption mental health competency within nine child welfare systems. Dr. Kobulsky is engaged in a collaborative research project with the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance aimed at preventing the recurrence of child sexual abuse.  

Prior to joining Temple University’s School of Social Work in 2018, Dr. Kobulsky was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland School of Social Work (2016-2018) and a doctoral training fellow of the Administration of Children, Youth and Families (2014-2016). She received her doctorate from Case Western Reserve University’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences in 2016. Her passion for collaborating with child welfare systems is rooted in her background conducting research and evaluation for a Cleveland-area nonprofit serving vulnerable children and families.