Samantha Bates, PhD, LISW-S is a licensed independent social worker with more than eight years of experience working with socially vulnerable youth in various settings including schools, communities, afterschool programs, and sport. Her research focuses on equity-minded positive youth development and seeks to draw attention to patterns of inequity in youth outcomes. This work includes exploring how to leverage sport as a context for social-emotional learning, identifying evidence-based and culturally responsive mental health interventions, and examining how adults in youth-serving organizations become race-conscious and aware of the social and historical context of exclusionary practices in education.

Bates graduated with her doctorate from The Ohio State University (OSU), where she served as a social work supervisor in a local dropout recovery high school and led research for the Community and Youth Collaborative Institute (CAYCI) and the OSU LiFEsports Initiative. She then went on to work as an Assistant Professor at Texas Christian University for three years before returning to OSU. Bates currently has authored or co-authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications, six book chapters, 15 community-based evaluation reports, and over 75 national conference presentations. Her teaching experience includes the instruction of courses in areas such as positive youth development in sport, generalist social work practice, and school social work.