Bio

Dr. Laura G. Daughtery received her doctorate in Social Work in December 2004 from the National Catholic School of Social Service at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. She has a Master’s degree in Social Work from the Howard University School of Social Work and a B.A. from Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Her dissertation is entitled, “Understanding the Identity Development of African American Female Adolescents Through their Foster Care Experience: Reachin’ landin’s, and turnin’ corners.” Her study pays special attention to the dynamics of power by asking African American female adolescents who experienced foster care to become co-collaborators in a qualitative design that uses narrative analysis to reveal/uncover their subjugated knowledge.

Dr. Daughtery began an Assistant Professor position in Fall 2005 at Catholic University and also teaches at Howard University. She had a former career as a licensed clinical social worker which included direct services to mothers and their children recovering from substance abuse, adolescents in foster care, teen mothers, and reunification of families and children in foster care.

Formal social work practice was actually a second career for Dr. Daughtery. Her lifelong interest in social change and social justice led initially to the field of journalism where she worked for two decades — first as a general assignment reporter for The Baltimore Sunday Sun and then as a broadcast news producer for local television stations in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. She also did a brief stint as a news producer and web writer for Black Entertainment Television.

Dr. Daughtery was born in 1954, the year the Supreme Court issued Brown v. Board of Education. She believes there is a relationship between being born that year, being the first member of her family to complete college, her academic journey, and her current pursuits.