Caitlin “Cat” Steele, MSSW is a doctoral student in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she earned both her Bachelor of Science in Social Work and Master of Science in Social Work. Her research examines how systems, services, and research practices shape behavioral and mental health outcomes for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). She is particularly interested in improving the accessibility and responsiveness of systems of care while strengthening the meaningful inclusion of people with IDD in research used to understand their lives and inform services.
Cat brings 10 years of social work and human services practice to her scholarship, with extensive experience supporting adults with IDD across direct care, program management, and organizational leadership roles. Prior to beginning doctoral study, she served in leadership within community-based IDD services, including oversight of residential programs supporting adults receiving long-term services and supports and supervision of a large direct-support workforce. These experiences inform her interest in the gap between how health and social service systems are designed and how people experience and navigate them.
Cat’s research program centers adults with IDD as knowledgeable participants in the production and interpretation of research. Her current work examines their experiences navigating behavioral and mental healthcare systems and the use of participatory approaches to strengthen the evidence used to understand and improve those systems. Her broader interests include accessible research methods, systems of care, social and structural determinants of health, community-engaged research, implementation science, and mixed-methods approaches that meaningfully translate lived experience into improvements in services, policy, and research practice.
Cat is also actively engaged in academic and professional service. She serves as President of the PhD Student Organization within the UT College of Social Work, contributing to initiatives that strengthen doctoral student engagement, professional development, and connection across the College. Additionally, she serves as the student representative for the PhD Program Committee. Nationally, she serves on the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Communications Committee and contributes to professional service within the social work research community.
Cat’s scholarship is grounded in the idea that improving systems for adults with IDD requires improving how we listen to, learn from, and produce knowledge alongside the people who experience those systems.
Research Interests
- Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD)
- Health and Behavioral Healthcare Access
- Systems of Care and Service Delivery
- Accessible and Inclusive Research Methods
- Participatory and Community-Engaged Research
- Disability and Health Equity
- Social and Structural Determinants of Health
- Mixed-Methods and Qualitative Research
- Research Inclusion, Representation, and Proxy Bias
- Implementation and Translation of Community-Engaged Research