Susan Roll
Susan is a professor of Social Work at CSU, Chico. She is currently serving as the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Social Work in 2010 from the University of Denver after a decade in community organizing and non-profit leadership. Susan’s teaching and research interests focus on poverty, housing, and economic inequality. Through community-based participatory research, she studies how social welfare policies either support or create barriers for families to be financially stable. She also works on how we teach and learn with students from diverse communities through innovative pedagogy and experiential learning. Susan is the co-founder of the Housing Research Group (with Jennifer Wilking), and together their current work with the HRG focuses on evaluation of college focused Rapid Rehousing. They are also advising Lincoln Bohn’s Master’s thesis which begins an on-going evaluation of the Pallet Shelter in Chico, CA.
Jennifer Wilking
Jen is a professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice at California State University, Chico. She received her Ph.D. in 2010 from University of California, Davis. Broadly, Jen’s research and teaching interests focus on development, poverty and fairness. She has explored these issues via comparative experiments in the U.S. and China, and through evaluative research of housing policies and programs in California. Jen enjoys and is an evangelist of collaborative work, such as interdisciplinary co-teaching, and community based participatory research. Jen is the co-founder of the Housing Research Group (with Susan Roll), and together their current work with the HRG focuses on evaluation of college focused Rapid ReHousing. They are also advising Lincoln Bohn’s Master’s thesis which begins an on-going evaluation of the Pallet Shelter in Chico, CA.
Jacque Chase
Jacquelyn Chase retired in 2022 from the Geography and Planning Department at Chico State after 22 years at the university. She taught international and local curriculum related to planning, economic geography, global affairs, urban geography, and Latin American Studies. Her current research is on fire recovery and land use planning. Research on the Camp Fire includes a co-authored article in Society and Natural Resources on displacement after the fire and a co-authored online article in Chico State Today on the rebuild process. As a member of the Housing Research Group, she is currently working with community Partner, Rebuild Paradise, to better understand the who, why and implications for land-use of the re-population of Paradise and Magalia, CA, post- Camp Fire. Dr. Chase received a Fulbright Scholar award for 2023 to study the contributions of new rural residents in central Portugal to fire resilience.
Amy Magnus
Dr. Amy Magnus is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice. She earned her Ph.D. in Criminology, Law and Society from the University of California, Irvine with emphases in Law, Society, and Culture and Race and Justice. She is an interdisciplinary scholar-activist whose research largely examines the intersections of social inequality, access to justice, and community activism and social change. She is passionate about using her scholarship to help facilitate community-desired social change for those most vulnerable. With the Housing Research Group, Amy is in the exploratory phases of a community event to elevate the intersection of art, oral history, and housing justice.
Molly Calhoun
Molly Calhoun is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at California State University, Chico. She completed her doctorate at the University of Minnesota in 2020. Molly’s research interests include the intersection of race, power and privilege on housing policy and innovative models of housing, the impact of neoliberalism on social work practice, and rapid rehousing for college students. Prior to pursing her PhD, she spent over 15 years in community-based practice through out-of-school time work with children, youth, and families. As a member of the Housing Research Group, Molly is developing a project to understand access to affordable housing in Butte County.
Susanna Curry
Susanna Curry is an associate professor in the School of Social Work at Sacramento State University. She completed her doctorate at UCLA in 2016. Susanna’s research interests include homelessness prevention across the life span, youth and young adult homelessness, and participant experiences with programs addressing homelessness and housing instability. She is currently working with other CSU campuses on an evaluation of the College-Focused Rapid Rehousing program. She is also collaborating with Dr. Molly Calhoun (CSU Chico) and Dr. Angie Perone (UC Berkeley) on a study of experiences with home sharing organizations across three regions of California.
