Dr. Pegah Naemi Jimenez awarded 2023 Suzanne & Harry Statland Research Staff Award


For the first time ever this year, the School is proud to present a new annual award recognizing the outstanding research and scholarship work of research staff. The inaugural recipient of this award is Dr. Pegah Naemi Jimenez.

As an associate researcher, Pegah is an integral member of the School’s Center for Research to Transform Systems for Family, Community & Social Justice, She exhibits strong leadership among peers and leads multiple initiatives. Pegah’s scholarship is community-engaged, participatory, and collaborative, demonstrated by her development and nurturance of critical relationships with partners and agencies throughout Kansas and Missouri. Her work centers and advances racial equity, a core value that she actively embodies in her cultural humility and application of intersectional and anti-oppressive methods. She conducts research with integrity and a critical perspective, aiming to develop evidence to inform transformational change for the good of all.

Pegah’s contributions to the School are far reaching. She is the Principal Investigator for the Safe Sleep Program Evaluation, the lead evaluator for the Parent Youth Facilitation strategy of the Kansas Strong for Children and Families Initiative, and leading a new project to amplify the voices of women of color engaged in social justice movements in Iran. Additionally, Pegah mentors early career BIPOC researchers and coaches and supports Graduate Research Assistants, providing meaningful opportunities for growth and professional development in our School.

Beyond her stellar research, scholarship, and mentorship, Pegah is a tremendous, highly valued colleague. Pegah’s dynamic engagement with colleagues, partners, and systems combined with her commitment to social action and racial equity demonstrate the ways that she enlivens the KUSSW’s vision and guiding principles for social and racial justice.