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Natalie

Pope

Associate Professor, Director of PhD Programs
605 Patterson Office Tower
859-218-2768
natalie.pope1@uky.edu
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Areas of Expertise

  • Qualitative methodology
  • Caregiving across the lifespan
  • Behavioral health and well-being of community-dwelling older adults

Highlighted Publications

  • Gibson, A., Bardach, S., & Pope, N.D. (2020). COVID-19 and the digital divide: Will social workers help bridge the gap? Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 63(6/7), 671-673.
  • Pope, N.D., Buchino, S., & Ascienzo, S. (2020). “Just like jail”: Trauma experiences of older homeless men. Journal of Gerontological Social Work: Special Issue – Trauma in Later Life, 63(3), 143-161.
    • Awarded 2020 Rose Dobrof Award – AGE-SW
  • Pope, N.D., Miller, J.J., & Benner, K. (2020). Cultivating resilience in new foster parents through mentoring: A dyadic analysis. Child and Youth Services Review. 110.
  • Latimer, A., Pope, N.D., & McFarlin, J. (2020). “I just feel like I always did”: Inotropic dependency at end of life. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 37(7), 497-502.
  • Schuman, D.L., Lawrence, K.A., & Pope, N.D. (2019). Broadcasting war trauma: An exploratory netnography of veterans’ YouTube vlogs. Qualitative Health Research, 29(3), 357–370.

Current Projects

  • Home and Neighborhood Preferences of Aging Lexington Residents
  • Teaching & Learning Qualitative Interviewing
  • Professional Development among Social Work Students in an Integrated Behavioral Health (IBH) Program

Alma Mater

  • University of Georgia – Bachelor of Arts, Master of Social Work, PhD in Social Work

Get to Know Dr. Pope

Dr. Pope is originally from Atlanta, Georgia but has made her home in Lexington KY for more than 10 years. Dr. Pope started her career working in public child welfare, helping families and parents whose children were experiencing abuse or neglect. Her experience as a social worker taught her to adopt a curious posture towards people; she made clients the experts on their own lives, even when she had a case file that was full of family history. Skills that made her an effective practitioner – reflexivity and self-awareness, empathy and sensitivity, ability to carefully observe and describe, also help her to be an effective researcher. After 12+ years of doing research, she identifies as a qualitative researcher and seeks to understand human behavior. Dr. Pope’s happy place is doing in-depth interviews, observing people, getting lost in the messiness of lots of data, and trying to make sense of what she’s seeing in transcripts and field notes. Dr. Pope’s research interests address the broad areas of family caregiving across the life span, as well as behavioral health and well-being of community-dwelling older adults.