FACULTY Q&A In the nearly 20 years that University of Michigan social work professor Trina Shanks has lived in Detroit and researched issues related to the impact of poverty, she’s gotten much closer to solutions. Shanks, director of the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being, faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research and director of community engagement at the School of Social Work, has conducted research on the impact of poverty and wealth on child well-being; asset-building policy and practice across the life cycle; and community and economic development. She spent 10 years working on the Skillman Foundation’s Good Neighborhoods Initiative, which was a $100 million effort to improve outcomes for children in Detroit.