What the job entails
Dr. Daniels is co-founder and CEO of Fathers’ UpLift, Inc., the country’s first mental health and substance use treatment facility for fathers and families. By providing counseling and other resources, the agency helps men, often with histories of trauma and incarceration, to become and remain emotionally stable for their children. Dr. Daniels, who holds an MSW from Simmons, is currently expanding the 10-year-old organization through evaluating outcome data, licensing an evidence-based model that supports men of color, and adapting interventions for international practice. “My work has moved from mainly focusing on individuals in individual settings to having a greater societal impact,” he says.
What brought him to Simmons
Dr. Daniels continued his education at Simmons, he says, for its emphasis on developing practitioner-scholars. “It was important that the program I chose embraced both roles and would teach me through that lens,” he explains. Dr. Daniels also appreciated the close mentorship with faculty who “believe in you and your work.” In addition, the program’s flexible structure was key as he set out to build Fathers’ UpLift into a national resource.
We’re focusing on the total human—to teach men of color how to love themselves.
How Simmons prepared him
Challenging courses in scientific methods, social and behavioral theory, and public policy, says Dr. Daniels, were instrumental in preparing him for his comprehensive evaluation and dissertation. Most valuable, however, was the highly collaborative relationship with his advisor, Michelle Putnam, PhD.
“Dr. Putnam shaped me into a better practitioner and a scholar,” he says. “She honed in on my skills and asked me the tough questions, but also provided the leadership and mentorship I needed to think about my work in a different way.”
His dissertation examined three years of Fathers’ UpLift data to assess the impact of its mental health clinic on Black and brown fathers with histories of trauma and incarceration — all had been disengaged from their children. The research, he reports, laid bare the complexity of systemic issues that the men faced and the efficacy of Fathers’ UpLift in helping them regulate their emotions and decrease stress. “Having a community allowed these men to re-learn their worth,” he says. “It made them feel like they could tackle the world, regardless of their circumstances."
Why it’s rewarding
Taking Fathers’ UpLift to the next level, says Dr. Daniels, has deepened his understanding of the men’s struggles and successes. Having grown up without his father in his life, Dr. Daniels reports he’s excited to bring this empathy and knowledge well beyond the 8,500 fathers and families that the organization has already helped. “All of our findings from the research have been embedded in our model to make it better,” he says. “We’re focusing on the total human—to teach men of color how to love themselves.”