Bethany Letiecq, Board of Directors
Dr. Bethany Letiecq is a Professor of Community Health at Montana State University, and also serves as President of the Gallatin Valley Human Rights Taskforce. In these capacities, she has worked closely with migrants in the Gallatin Valley area and spearheaded numerous efforts to advance immigrant justice.
She received her Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of Maryland–College Park in Family Science. She conducts community-based action research, with the goal of ameliorating health disparities among families on the economic and social margins. She is currently working in partnership with Latino migrants in the Gallatin Valley to develop an intervention to improve the mental health and well-being of Latinos here. Previously, she worked with African American fathers rearing children in high violence neighborhoods in the Washington, DC area and with grandparents rearing grandchildren across Montana.
Dr. Letiecq also examines the intended and unintended consequences of social policies for families and the ways in which policies impact different families differently, facilitating functioning among some families, while hindering functioning among others. She is the Director of the Montana Family Policy Impact Seminar Series, which educates policymakers about social policies, families, and new directions for policy change to improve the lives of Montana families. She has published her research in such professional outlets as Family Relations, Fathering, Journal of Family Issues,Journal of Intergenerational Relationships, and Health Education and Behavior and is affiliated with the National Council on Family Relations and the American Sociological Association.
Programs and Resesarch Projects
- The mental health and survival strategies of Latino migrant families in a non-traditional settlement area (Co-PI: Leah Schmalzbauer, Sociology, MSU)
- The parenting practices, coping strategies, and well-being of African American fathers rearing preschoolers in high-violence, under-resourced communities
- The mental health and adaptation of grandparents rearing grandchildren in Montana (Co-PI: Sandra Bailey, HHD, MSU)
- Kinship care through the lens of child welfare social workers
Specialties and Interests
- Social policies and families
- Health disparities and survival strategies among families on the margins
- Parenting in context
- Diversity issues in family life and academia
- Conducting research for social change and justice