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faculty

Tamara Fuller

Director- Children and Family Research Center, Research Associate Professor

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Contact

(217) 244-8615

School of Social Work
1010 W. Nevada St.
Urbana, IL 61801
Office Suite: 2080

Education

Dr. Tamara Fuller received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Iowa in 1989. She then came to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earned both a MA and PhD in clinical/community psychology. After a clinical internship at the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development in Washington, DC, she returned to Champaign-Urbana and worked at Carle Hospital in the neuropsychology department.

Dr. Fuller joined the staff at the Children and Family Research Center at the School of Social Work in 1997 as a research specialist. She became Associate Director of the Children and Family Research Center in 2003, and was promoted to Director in 2010.

Research

Dr. Fuller’s research focuses on children and families involved in the public child welfare system and the effectiveness of the services and interventions that are provided to families once they become involved in a maltreatment investigation. Over the past decade, she has evaluated the effectiveness of numerous child welfare programs, including the Family-Centered Services, the Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol, the Illinois Child Death Review Teams, post-adoption services, and most recently, Differential Response in child protective services. Within this program of research, there has been emphasis on examining predictors of maltreatment and maltreatment recurrence.

Dr. Fuller is the Principal Investigator of a four year evaluation, funded by the National Quality Improvement Center on Differential Response in Child Protective Services, which will evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of Differential Response in Illinois. Dr. Fuller is also the Principal Investigator of research program of the Children and Family Research Center. Each year, the Center’s research program is developed in consultation with the Department of Children and Family Services and the plaintiff’s attorneys for the B.H. Consent Decree. The Center is responsible for monitoring the outcomes for children in the B.H. class, which includes those children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Other research projects subsumed within the Center’s research agenda include annual evaluation of the impact of safety assessment on children investigated for child abuse and neglect, an examination of the impact of foster parent licensing on child safety, and family engagement in child protective services.

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Latest news

  • Faculty & Staff,
  • Research,
  • Community Impact

CFRC Director Tamara Fuller Appointed by Governor Pritzker to Serve on Advisory Commission

January 24, 2023

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  • Faculty & Staff,
  • Research

CMHI: Working Toward Better Mental Health Services for Children

March 29, 2021

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