Research Expertise

• Organizational systems and processes and social/leadership factors influencing positive youth development within schools and out-of-school settings
• School mental health programs
• Early intervention programs for at-risk high school students
• School mental and behavioral health systems and services 
• Mental and behavioral health workforce development  
• Interprofessional education and collaboration  
• Motivational interviewing

Background

Associate Professor Aidyn Iachini joined the College of Social Work faculty in 2011. Her research focuses on the organizational systems and processes, along with social and leadership factors, influencing positive youth development within schools and out‐of‐school time settings (e.g., afterschool programs, sport/physical activity programs, youth development programs). 

Iachini has recently co-authored journal articles on topics including interprofessional education and collaboration, behavioral and mental health services in family-serving organizations, early intervention programs for at-risk high school students, and the contribution of afterschool programs to positive youth development. Her publications have been featured in scholarly journals, such as Prevention Science, Children & Youth Services Review, Children & Schools, Journal of Interprofessional Care, and Health & Social Work. Iachini recently co-edited a book “A Guide for Interprofessional Collaboration.” 

Iachini received a Breakthrough Star Award from the Office of the Vice President for Research in 2015. The award is presented annually to early-career faculty for research excellence. In 2020, she was inducted as a Society for Social Work and Research Fellow.   
 
Since joining the College of Social Work faculty, Iachini served as principal or co-principal investigator on 24 externally and internally funded research awards. Currently, she is a principal investigator of a USC Aspire II grant focused on developing a data-based decision-making intervention for school personnel focused on social-emotional learning. She also recently worked as co-principal investigator on a Health Resources and Services Administration-funded training and research project focused on expanding the mental health workforce through scholarships to support advanced level Master of Social Work students in developing interprofessional behavioral health competencies. Iachini, along with College of Social Work Professors Teri Browne, Dana DeHart and Melissa Reitmeier, are also leading a South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services-awarded research project to improve behavioral health workforce recruitment and retention in rural areas. 

Iachini is a consulting editor for Children & Schools and on the editorial review board for the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research and the Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. She was Co-Chair of the School Social Work Cluster for SSWR, and will serve as Co-Chair for the Interprofessional Education Track within the Council for Social Work Education . 

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of South Carolina, Iachini was an instructor and post-doctoral research fellow at the Ohio State University College of Social Work, where she earned her MSW. Iachini also received a Master of Arts and Ph.D. from the Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology.