Cheryl Smithgall is a research fellow at Chapin Hall. Her work spans the areas of child welfare, education, and children's mental health, often incorporating the perspectives of both social service systems and family systems. Her early work at Chapin Hall was with the National Evaluation of Family Preservation and Reunification Services. She has since led several projects examining educational issues for children involved with the child welfare system and mental health service utilization among children in child welfare placements or kinship care families. She has also conducted and contributed to several evaluations of community schools and school-service provider collaborations. Dr. Smithgall is currently leading a 5-year evaluation of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Integrated Assessment program.

Dr. Smithgall has taught as a part-time lecturer at the School of Social Service Administration, including courses on data analysis and policy management, research methods, and human behavior and the social environment. She holds an M.A. in psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. Prior to coming to Chapin Hall, Dr. Smithgall was a child protective caseworker in Portland, Maine.