Matthew Epperson
Associate Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice; Director, Smart Decarceration Project
Matt Epperson is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, where he also serves as Director of the Smart Decarceration Project. His research centers on developing, implementing, and evaluating interventions to reduce disparities in the criminal legal system. Dr. Epperson's primary areas of focus include addressing risk factors for criminal legal involvement among persons with mental illnesses, as well as advancing evidence-based approaches to effective and sustainable decarceration. He is Co-Leader of the Promote Smart Decarceration network, through the Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative. Dr. Epperson’s scholarship and teaching aim to build the capacity of the social work profession to address these challenges and create opportunities for transforming how justice is defined and realized.
Matt Epperson is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, where he also serves as Director of the Smart Decarceration Project.
He is faculty director of the Transforming Justice Policies and Practices program of study at Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. He teaches courses in direct practice and research methods, as well as a course that he designed entitled “Smart Decarceration: A Grand Challenge for Social Work.” He has over 15 years of clinical and administrative social work experience in behavioral health and criminal justice settings.
Prior to joining SSA, professor Epperson was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Behavioral Health Services & Criminal Justice Research at Rutgers University's Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research. He received his Ph.D. with distinction from the Columbia University School of Social Work, a M.S.W. from Grand Valley State University, and a B.S. in Sociology/Criminal Justice from Central Michigan University.