Mary Beth Vogel-Ferguson, PhD, CSW

Mary Beth Vogel-Ferguson, PhD, CSW

Interim Executive Director

Mary Beth Vogel-Ferguson, PhD, CSW received her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Utah. Dr. Vogel-Ferguson joined the faculty of the College of Social Work at the University of Utah in 2008. For the past 23 years, she has directed research studies and program evaluations with state and regional-level government agencies and is currently the principal investigator of several studies sponsored by Utah’s Dept. of Workforce Services and the Utah Dept. of Health. These studies include evaluations of the work focused cash assistance program, refugee support programs, employment for formerly chronically homeless individuals and implementation of trauma-informed approaches across the state. She has assisted all levels of agency management, from senior leadership to front line workers, in using data for program and policy development. In addition to her research, she also provide workshops for local and national welfare agency administrators, research bodies and social work groups addressing issues related to welfare policy, trauma-informed approaches, employment issues, poverty and serving diverse low-income populations.

In 2017, Dr. Vogel-Ferguson was asked by Lt. Governor Cox to co-chair “Resilient Utah,” a sub-committee of the Intergenerational Welfare Reform Commission with the charge of making Utah a trauma-informed state. Since that time, she has worked in various capacities to support the development of Trauma-Informed Utah, including using her research background to conduct a statewide assessment of trauma-informed approaches and advising the development of the proposal concept for Trauma-Informed Utah.