Jill Levenson, PhD

Dr. Levenson studies the impact and effectiveness of social policies and therapeutic interventions designed to reduce sexual victimization and perpetration. She researches the prevalence and impact of adverse childhood experiences and their influence on adult outcomes, mental health, and criminality.

Dr. Jill Levenson, PhD, LCSW, Professor of Social Work, is a SAMHSA-trained internationally recognized expert in trauma-informed care. Her primary area of expertise is in the area of policies and clinical interventions designed to prevent sexual abuse. She has published over 100 articles, and her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Justice, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). Her groundbreaking research on the link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and sexually abusive behavior has paved the way for innovations in treatment programs that now utilize a trauma-informed approach. She has been a licensed clinical social worker for over 30 years, using a scientist-practitioner model to inform her research, advocacy, and clinical practice with people who have sexually offended, those who have been victimized, and families impacted by sexual trauma. In 2020 Dr. Levenson was honored to receive the Social Worker of the Year Award from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW-FL) Miami-Dade Chapter. In 2020 she was also inducted to the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, an honor society of distinguished scholars and practitioners dedicated to achieving excellence in the field through high impact work that advances social justice and the public good. https://aaswsw.org/member/jill-levenson-phd/ In 2019 Dr. Levenson was named by the Journal of Social Service Research as being among the top 100 social work scholars in North America. According to the journal, “the top 100 most influential contemporary social work faculty were identified, resulting in a listing of individuals who have published relatively large numbers of scholarly works, which themselves have been subsequently highly cited.” In 2019 Jill Levenson was the recipient of ATSA’s Lifetime Achievement Award! In 2017 she was named Barry University’s Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year! Dr. Levenson has been invited to present as a keynote speaker about trauma-informed care in clinical, correctional, and forensic settings in over 20 states, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Australia. She has co-authored five books about the treatment of sexual abuse, including these recently released books, both published by Safer Society Press: Trauma Informed Care: Transforming treatment for people who have sexually abused, co-authored with Gwenda Willis and David Prescott. www.safersociety.org/press/store/trauma-informed-care/ Healing from Sexual Violence: The case for vicarious restorative justice, co-authored with Dr. Alissa Ackerman.https://safersocietypress.org/healing-from-sexual-violence/