Justin Harty

Justin Harty is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work. He comes to ASU from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, where he earned his doctorate. He earned bachelor’s degrees in both sociology and philosophy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011. He received his master’s of social work, with a concentration in children and families, from the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2013.

After earning a master’s degree, Harty worked for three years as a foster care worker in Chicago. He is a licensed clinical social worker serving child welfare involved fathers and provides father-focused trainings to child welfare, foster care and family strengthening agencies around father involvement and engagement.

Harty’s research interests include the outcomes and preparedness of young fathers aging out of the foster care system, father engagement in child welfare services, and father-related social services in the history of the social work profession. His current research examines ways to better serve fathers in home visiting, child welfare and foster care settings. His dissertation focused on the experiences and needs of young Black fathers in foster care as they leave state care and transition to independent adulthood and early fatherhood.

Harty is the project coordinator and research assistant on the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH) examining the impact of extended foster care among transition-aged foster youth in California. He is also a research assistant on the Dads Matter-HV study testing a father-focused enhancement to home visiting services.

Fundamental to Harty's social justice work is his commitment to dismantling racism and colonialism within the social work profession. He mobilizes social change by using Black social work history to directly address white supremacy, racism and colonialism while leveraging long-standing African traditions of self-help and mutual aid to help social workers and Black communities continue the resistance against oppression and inequality.