Shane Brady

Dr. Brady joined the faculty at WMU in 2023, after spending 9 years at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Brady received his Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2012, his MSW degree from the University of Michigan in 2008, and his BSW degree from Eastern Michigan University in 2007. Dr. Brady’s practice experience takes place across the micro-macro continuum. Dr. Brady has worked in the areas of HIV/AIDS, substance abuse and harm reduction, community mental health, and housing and homelessness. Additionally, Dr. Brady is a longtime community organizer with experience working in diverse and high-need communities around neighborhood-level capacity building, youth participation, and positive youth development, eliminating the school-to-prison pipeline, and post-Katrina restorative justice. Dr. Brady learned community organizing through his time in Detroit and surrounding southeast Michigan communities, along with learning from pioneers of the Freedom Tradition of civil rights organizing in Mississippi. Dr. Brady’s research emphasizes community practice, community-engaged and participatory forms of research, youth work, critical theories, social work education, and social media and technology.