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M. Alex Wagaman

Associate professor

Email: mawagaman@vcu.edu
Pronouns: She/her

Alex Wagaman, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the VCU School of Social Work. Her research focuses on participatory research and service approaches that promote engagement, leadership and resilience among youth and young adults who belong to populations that face marginalization and discrimination. She is co-founder of Advocates for Richmond Youth, a participatory action research team focusing on ending youth homelessness. Wagaman is a team member on the VCU iCubed Intersections in the Lives of LGBTQIA+ Communities Transdisciplinary Core.

Research conducted by Advocates for Richmond Youth has been used to develop a set of communitywide recommendations, has spurred youth-led community housing advocacy and has supported the efforts of multiple community partners in a Youth Housing Stability Coalition. Their work has also received national attention through selection as a Grand Challenge community with A Way Home America (2019-2021) and serving on a national team that developed a research agenda on LGBTQ+ youth homelessness in partnership with True Colors United. Wagaman’s work has also resulted in four years of state-level funding (2021-2025) to co-design, implement and evaluate a shared housing program model for LGBTQ+ youth, pregnant and parenting youth, and youth at the intersection.

In 2024, Wagaman was appointed as the special advisor on youth homelessness to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Wagaman’s primary teaching interests are in macro social work practice and community organizing. She teaches across the B.S.W. and M.S.W. programs.

Areas of expertise

  • Youth and Young Adult Development
  • Communities and Neighborhoods
  • Community-Based Participatory Research
  • Gender
  • Homelessness and Housing
  • Inequality, Poverty and Social Welfare Policy
  • Macro practice
  • Participatory Action Research
  • Research on Social Work Education
  • Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Education and credentials

Ph.D., Arizona State University
M.S.W., Arizona State University
B.S.W., Winthrop University

View M. Alex Wagaman's curriculum vitae.

Author: Wagaman, M. A.
Topic: Adolescent and Youth Development, Communities and Neighborhoods, Community-based Participatory Research, Gender, Homelessness, Inequality+ Poverty and Social Welfare Policy, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Work

Selected publications

Wagaman, M. A., Howell, K., Teresa, B., Hefner, R., Woehrle, H., Haynes, T. S., & Lawrence, J. (2023). Youth participatory action research as an empowerment-based method for community change. Journal of Community Practice.

Littman, D. M., Ortega-Williams, A., Beltrán, R., Wagaman, M. A., Bender, K., & Wernick, L. (2023). Navigating, subverting, and replacing conventional academic structures and expectations to co-create with participatory action research (PAR) teams: Where to for PAR scholarship? Journal of Community Practice.

Watts, K., Wagaman, M. A., Eaton, A., Leung, V., & Craig, S. (2023). Examining the role of peer and family belongingness in the mental health of Black LGBTQ youth. Child & Youth Services.

Bickford, E., Matijczak, A., Kemmerer, A, Martinez, F., & Wagaman, M. A. (2023). Applications of transformative justice principles for centering transgender and gender expansive experiences in social work education and practice. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 50(1), 181-207.

Gattis, M. N., Wagaman, M. A., & Kemmerer, A. (2023). Developing Marsha and Marian’s Neighbors: A shared housing intervention to address homelessness among LGBTQ+ and pregnant/parenting youth. Youth, 3, 335–350.

Wagaman, M. A., Compton, K. S., Haynes, T. S., Lange, J., Williams, E. G., & Obejero, R. C. (2022). Youth participatory action research as an approach to developing community-level responses to youth homelessness in the United States: Learning from Advocates for Richmond Youth. In Stoecker, R., & Falcon, A. (Eds.). (2022). Handbook on participatory action research and community development. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Wagaman, M. A., Gattis, M. N., Watts, K. J., Yabar, M. P., Blair, D., Haynes, T. S., & Williams, E. G. (2022). The role of schools in supporting students experiencing homelessness: Perceptions of school staff. Children & Schools.

Odera, S. G., Wagaman, M. A., Staton, A., & Kemmerer, A. (2021). De-centering whiteness in social work curriculum: An autoethnographic reflection on a racial justice practice course. Advances in Social Work.

Horton, A., Kemmerer, A., Valentine, J., & Wagaman, M. A. (2021). Trans youth are our future: Reflections from Advocates for Richmond Youth on transgender and gender-expansive youth-led projects. In Mallon, G.P. & Shelton, J. (Eds.). (2021). Social work practice with transgender youth (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.

Wagaman, M. A., & Kemmerer, A. (2020). Transgender and nonbinary youth empowerment. In S. K. Kattari, M. K. Kinney, L. Kattari, & N. E. Walls (Eds.). Social work and health care practice with transgender and nonbinary individuals and communities: Voices for equity, inclusion, and resilience. Routledge.

Wagaman, M. A., Watts, K., Lamneck, V., D’Souza, S., McInroy, L., Eaton, A., & Craig, S. (2020). Managing stressors online and offline: LGBTQ+ youth in the southern United States. Children and Youth Services Review.

Role: Faculty

Professional highlights

Research projects and funding

  • Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, Housing Trust Fund – Homeless Reduction Grant Youth Innovation Project (Co-PI with Dr. Maurice Gattis), Richmond, VA – 2022-2025
    Project Title: Implementing and evaluating a shared housing program model LGBTQ+ youth, pregnant and parenting youth, and youth at the intersection
  • Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, Housing Trust Fund – Homeless Reduction Grant Youth Innovation Project (Co-PI with Dr. Maurice Gattis), Richmond, VA ($69,000) – 2021-2022
    Project Title: Designing a shared housing program model for LGBTQ+ youth, pregnant and parenting youth, and youth at the intersection
  • Community Engaged Research, Health Equity Grant, Virginia Commonwealth University, Division of Community Engagement (PI), Richmond, VA ($12,000) – 2021-2022
    Project Title: “They were supposed to prepare me for that.”: Exploring factors that impact the housing stability of system-involved youth and young adults in Richmond
  • Project HOPE, College of William and Mary, (Co-PI, with Dr. Maurice Gattis), Richmond, VA ($4,950) – 2020-2021
    Project Title: Development of a meaningful youth engagement toolkit
  • 2019-2020: Presidential Research Quest Fund (PERQ), Virginia Commonwealth University, (Co-PI), joint project with Dr. Kathryn Howell, VCU School of Government & Public Affairs, Richmond, VA ($49,000)
    Project Title: Housing Stability from the Ground Up: Youth Empowerment through Eviction Research
  • 2019-2021: Robins Foundation Community Innovation Grant (Co-PI), Richmond, VA ($500,000), Partnership with United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg, Commonwealth Catholic Charities and Advocates for Richmond Youth
    Project Title: Youth Housing Stability Project
  • 2018-2019: Presidential Research Quest Fund (PERQ), Virginia Commonwealth University, (Co-I), Richmond, VA ($50,000)
    Project Title: Companion Animals in the Context of LGBTQ+ Youth Wellbeing

Accomplishments

  • 2022: Awardee, Best Qualitative Article of 2021, Journal of Social Work Education
  • 2021: Faculty Awardee, Presidential Award for Community Multicultural Enrichment (PACME) and the Riese-Melton Award, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • 2019: Peacemaker of the Year, Richmond Peace Education Center
  • 2018: 7th Annual Florence W. Vigilante Award for Scholarly Excellence in recognition of the best article published in the Journal of Teaching in Social Work – Queering the Social Work Classroom
  • 2014-2020: Council member, Council on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (CSOGIE), Council on Social Work Education
  • 2016: Honorable Mention – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity & Expression Scholarship Award, Council on Social Work Education
  • 2014: Awardee – Social Justice Award, School of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University

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