Amelia Gavin is an associate professor in the School of Social Work and the director of the bachelor of arts in social welfare program. Her research explores racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes. "I'm very interested in why black women are nearly twice as likely as their white counterparts to deliver a low-weight or pre-term infant. That disparity looks worse for Native American women," Gavin said. "We've had all these innovations in technology around what to do in pregnancy, but we still have these disparities. What could explain them in a resource-rich place like the United States?"