Assistant Professor

School of Social Work
St. John's College
Room: J-4004
Memorial University of Newfoundland

Phone: (709) 864-8147
Email: agoulden@mun.ca 

Ami Goulden (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at Memorial University. Dr. Goulden completed her PhD at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. She has earned a Master of Social Work (University of Toronto), a Master of Arts in Child and Youth Studies (Mount Saint Vincent University), a Bachelor of Social Work (Dalhousie), and a Bachelor of Arts (Mount Saint Vincent University).

Ami has over ten years of social work practice experience in various settings, including inpatient and ambulatory pediatric and adult healthcare settings and child welfare. She received clinical training on one of the largest pediatric brain injury rehabilitation programs worldwide at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto. Ami has practiced in both urban and rural settings in Nova Scotia and Ontario. Her most recent experience includes working in multidisciplinary healthcare clinics serving clients with chronic health conditions and their families during the coronavirus pandemic.

Before her appointment at Memorial, Ami taught in the Schools of Social Work at Renison University College at the University of Waterloo and King’s University College at Western University, and the Department of Family Studies and Gerontology at Mount Saint Vincent University. She has taught various subject areas on-campus and online, including courses in mental health and addictions, disability, generalist social work practice, social work practice with individuals and families, theory and research, and program planning.

Ami embraces critical qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches in her research agenda and published works. She has advanced training in qualitative research and received the ‘Advanced Training in Qualitative Health Research Methodology’ certificate through the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Ami has received several grants to support her research projects, including a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and the Royal Bank of Canada Graduate Fellowship in Applied Social Work Research. She is a co-investigator on the SSHRC Insight Grant, “Promoting attachment and mitigating the risk of infant maltreatment among young expectant mothers involved in the child welfare system,” led by Dr. Bryn King.

Research Interests/Focus
• Reproductive health and justice among disabled populations
• Sex-positive social work education and practice
• Sexual well-being among disabled people
• Healthcare decision-making among youth populations
• Young parenting in the child welfare system
• Universal design for social work education and practice
• Service user and carer involvement in social work education

Courses (2022-2023)

SCWK 2321
SCWK 4314
SCWK 6314

Publications (Refereed Journals)

Goulden, A., Mann, L., Norris, D., & Rossiter, M. (2022). Working mothers’ infant feeding experiences during their children’s transition to childcare: A qualitative study. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 1-15.

Adamson, K., Goulden, A., Logan, J., & Hammond, J. (2022). Service user involvement in social work education: A scoping review.  Journal of Social Work Education, 1-28. 

Goulden, A., Hoekstra, K., & King, B. (2021). A scoping review of programs for young mothers with child welfare involvement in Canada and the United States.  Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 1-14. 

Craig, S., McInroy, L., Goulden, A., & Eaton, A. (2021). Engaging the senses in qualitative research via multimodal coding: Triangulating transcript, audio, and video data in a study with sexual and gender minority youth.  International Journal of Qualitative Research, 20, 1-12. 

Goulden, A. (2021). A critical review of social work interventions and programs that support disabled youth with their sexual well-being.  Journal of Social Work Practice, 35(4), 403-417. 

Craig, S. L., McInroy, L. B., Goulden, A., Eaton, A. D., Kourgiantakis, T., Bogo, M., Adamson, K., Iacono, G., Gagliarda, L., Krasovec, T., Small, M. (2021). The health social work competency rating scale: Development of a tool for education and practice.  Social Work Education: The International Journal, 40(7), 928-941. 

Goulden, A. (2020). Disability competency in social work education: Tools for practice teaching. Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning, 17(2), 61-77.

King, B., Fallon, B., Goulden, A., O’Connor, C. & Filippelli, J. (2019). What constitutes risk for young mothers? An examination of child protection investigations involving adolescent and transition-age mothers. Families in Society, 100(4), 409-421. 

Goulden, A. (2019). The first year.  Families, Systems, & Health, 37(2), 181-182. 

Goulden, A. (2018). The integration of self-determination theory: Supplementing preceding and future models of disability.  Perspectives on Social Work, 14(2), 17-29.

Book Chapters

Goulden, A. & Kattari, S. (2022). Sexual orientation and sexuality. In E. Slayter & L. Johnson (Eds.), Social work practice and the disability community: An intersectional anti-oppressive approach.

Smith Carrier, T., Goulden, A., Singh, R. (2021). Implementing universal design for learning in social work education: A strengths perspective. In F. Fovet (Eds.), Handbook of research on applying universal design for learning across disciplines: Concepts, case studies, and practical implementation. IGI Global. 

Oxford Bibliography

King, B., Goulden, A., & Williams, K. (2021). Early Pregnancy and Parenthood Among Child Welfare–Involved Youth. Oxford Bibliographies in Social Work. Ed. New York: Oxford University Press.