Darejan (Daji) Dvalishvili is completing her Ph.D. in social work at Washington University in St. Louis. Her dissertation focuses on the intersections of poverty, child maltreatment, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Her dissertation received an Honorable Mention distinction from the APA Division of Child and Family Policy Section on the Child Maltreatment Dissertation Award committee. As a predoctoral fellow at the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she studies the intersectionality of gender, race, ethnicity, and economic status in the context of ACEs.
Her interests also include exploring the impact of various economic interventions on children’s well-being both in the US and globally. Toward that end, she has been working with UNICEF and other international and local non-profit organizations for several years. Darejan earned an MSW from Columbia University (New York, US) and an MD from Tbilisi State Medical University (Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia).