Indrani Saran.
As many as 5,000 children go to school each day in Boston not knowing where they will spend the night, according to FamilyAid Boston, a nonprofit that aims to end child and family homelessness.
Indrani Saran, an assistant professor of the practice at the Boston College School of Social Work, is working to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel program to identify families at risk of homelessness in Boston and intervene before they experience the trauma of eviction.
Here, Saran delves into the particulars of her research, reflects on her favorite part of her role at BCSSW, and shares a few little-known facts about her life outside of BC.
Can you tell us a little bit about the research you are currently working on?
One of the main projects I’m working on is a mixed methods evaluation of a homelessness prevention program that is implemented jointly by Boston Public Schools and FamilyAid. In the last school year, approximately 10 percent of BPS students were recorded as experiencing homelessness. The goal of the program is to identify families at risk of homelessness and intervene before they experience the trauma of eviction. We have been surveying families enrolled in this program for two years to assess impacts on housing stability as well as child well-being and academic outcomes. We are just starting to analyze the survey data, which is very exciting.
I also continue to do work related to my own research interests, which examine how people’s subjective beliefs affect their health behaviors. Using large-scale nationally representative health surveys in Nigeria and Kenya, my BCSSW doctoral student co-author and I are investigating factors that influence women’s beliefs about malaria and how those beliefs are associated with their malaria-related prevention, diagnosis, and treatment behaviors.
What is your role at BCSSW & what part of it do you enjoy the most?
As a biostatistician, I serve as a resource for BCSSW colleagues and students. My collaborations with faculty include contributions to grant applications, working on the design of research studies, and performing statistical analyses of datasets. I also teach research methods and statistics both at the MSW and PhD level, including a new PhD-level advanced quantitative methods class that will be offered for the first time this summer.
I enjoy the fact that I am constantly learning in my role, both through research and teaching. I like having the opportunity to work on a variety of different projects, which exposes me to new topics and methods. Teaching also helps me understand things on a deeper level and make novel connections.
How do you recharge outside of work?
I go for runs, read, and do all kinds of puzzles, from crosswords and Spelling Bee to jigsaw puzzles. With two kids under the age of five, that’s about all I can manage.
What is something that people who know you would be surprised to learn about you?
I was born in China and lived in four other countries (Japan, India, Mauritius, and Myanmar) before moving to the U.S. for college. Besides India, where I’m from, I’ve never been back to any of those countries.