Professor Elizabeth Fernandez
Elizabeth Fernandez is a Professor of Social Work at the School of Social Sciences, at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales.
Her teaching and research for over two decades are in the areas of child abuse, trauma, family violence, care and protection and field-based learning and supervision. Her areas of specialisation include research into practice with children and families, child and youth wellbeing, vulnerable families, early intervention, care and protection, risk assessment, children and legal intervention, foster care and adoption, social inclusion and minority groups, child and adolescent mental health, life course theory and research.
Dr. Fernandez has conducted research in collaboration with Government departments and non-government organisations to inform social policies and program development.
She has also collaborated with Barnardos Australia in the research and implementation of the Looking After Children (LAC) framework in Australian child welfare through the LAC Project and the implementation of the UK Framework for The Assessment of Families of Children in Need.
As a founding member of the International Association for Outcome-Based Evaluation in Family and Children’s Services, she shares an interest in cross-national outcome research.
Dr. Fernandez has published widely in national and international journals on child abuse, prevention and family support, out of home care, child wellbeing and field-based learning in social work education.