Though they teach in different programs within the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Danielle Rousseau and Assistant Professor of City Planning and Urban Affairs Enrique Silva share a commitment to reconstruction in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake—both on the macro level of planning and the micro level of the individual.
Rousseau, who has spent the past decade involved in victim services, crisis response for sexual assault and trauma, and as a therapist in correctional facilities, focuses on how research informs policy and practice in criminal justice, specifically concerning women and trauma. Her role in introducing yogaHOPE’s Trauma-Informed Mind-Body (TIMBo) program to the female inmates at MCI–Framingham was recognized by the Mass. Department of Correction. The non-profit yoga outreach program trains incarcerated women to be facilitators who can teach yoga and mindfulness practices to other inmates. Recently, Rousseau has been part of an effort to bring TIMBo programming to post-earthquake Haiti in partnership with local agency AMURT–Haiti, and has been evaluating how well the program provides “a positive means of coping for a nation dealing with complex traumas”—from the disaster itself to issues of shelter and safety, to the rape and sexual assaults that plague Port-au-Prince.