Dr.Sujeeta Elizabeth Menon 

Sujeeta Elizabeth Menon, Ph.D, L.M.S.W, R.S.W practice and research focuses on justice-involved youth, desistance of justice-involved young women, Trauma-informed care, Secondary trauma, Implementation research, program development for youth involved in the justice system, school to prison pipeline, positive youth development and empowerment, social work education, field education and grant writing. She has disseminated her research across multiple forums nationally such as the Council of Social Work Education APM conference, Society for Social Work Research Conference, Association for justice-involved Females Conference, UH graduate research conferences, Association for criminal justice sciences, and the Joint World Conference on Social Work, Education and Social Development (SWSD) 2018. She has also published in the Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, Child and Youth Services Review, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Journal of Social Work Education, and the Journal of Policy Practice and Research among other reputable peer-reviewed impact factor journals.

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Sujeeta's Social Work career began in 2006 with  Methodist Welfare Services (MWS) in Singapore, after graduating with her Bachelor's degree with Honors in Social Work from the National University of Singapore in 2006. She was first employed at the local Family Service Center known as MWS Tampines Family Service Center and provided casework and counseling services for all cases, financial counseling, worked with the grassroots, and with youth involved with the juvenile justice system. Thereafter, she was appointed by MWS to head a female residential treatment center;  MWS Girls Residence where she worked with girls aged 15-21 years who were involved in the justice system. This service fueled Sujeeta's interest in research within the juvenile correctional settings. Between 2019-2020, she worked as a Risk Assessment Specialist at Civic Heart Community Services, A community-based non-profit located in the Third Ward, Houston, TX. In 2020, Sujeeta wrote a federal grant and developed a gender-specific program known as VOICES using her PhD research. Upon receipt of funding, Sujeeta was promoted to Program Coordinator to implement the program at Civic Heart. VOICES is currently in the second grant cycle after getting re-funded in 2023. In 2021, she obtained another federal grant to implement the Youth C.A.N program for young men in the residential juvenile facilties. In 2022, she obtained a local grant to start the Youth Justice Reinvestment Fund at Civic Heart as the Intermediary, which included grantmaking activities and providing capacity building to local grassroots organizations. In 2023, Sujeeta developed an Arts program to support justice-involved youth and obtained federal funding to implement the program. From 2022-2024, Sujeeta provided oversight as the Program Director for all these programs designed to support justice-involved youth. Currently, she is a Principal Consultant with Viridis Consulting, supporting non-profits with program development, grant writing, and non-profit management.

As a social impact scholar who uses her research to create social change, she has organized community events that sought to achieve social, economic, and racial equity. Sujeeta was awarded the Community Partnership Action Award by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) in 2020 and was awarded by the Tan Kah Kee Postgraduate Scholarship in support of her PhD program in 2020. Sujeeta's dissertation is an effort to better inform us about young women in the juvenile justice system by providing an in-depth investigation of social functioning in multiple areas of their lives, and highlights the complex and interconnected risks and resilience to offer suggestions for evidence-informed policies and programs. Sujeeta is also a trauma-informed trainer and regularly trains probation officers on Secondary/ vicarious trauma. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Houston.