Dr. Franklin Cosey-Gay

Dr. Franklin N. Cosey-Gay is the Executive Director, Chicago Center for Youth Violence Prevention housed at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. He also serves as the co-director of the 1919 Chicago Race Riot Commemoration Project (CRR19). His program of research examines the nature of community violence and what factors increase risk or serve to protect positive outcomes among urban youth from marginalized communities. His research has primarily focused on developing, implementing, and evaluating tested and effective school-based and family-based interventions across the youth developmental spectrum using a comprehensive and coordinated approach across multiple sectors and multiple social-ecological levels. His work emphasizes emerging Public Health practice that goes beyond just looking at risk behaviors but researching upstream by examining root causes of violence such as the physical, social, economic, and service environments to address social inequities tied to class and race. Franklin is skilled in using qualitative methods to access and understand the context connected to what factors increase risk and buffer youth from youth problem behaviors.