Email: renzbeau@fiu.edu
Website: http://swjpa.fiu.edu/faculty/beau/

Dr. Beaulaurier earned a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Southern California, a Master of Social Work from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Whitman College.  He is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Florida International University (FIU) and a Research Associate at FIU’s Institute for Ethnicity and Immigration, and with the FIU Center for Research on U.S. latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse. He currently teaches doctoral, master and undergraduate courses on community social work practice, social services administration, social policy and research.

Dr. Beaulaurier has recently been named a Hartford Faculty Scholar. The award will provide funding to study Older Latinos and HIV/AIDS. The study combines several of Dr. Beaulaurier's interests, gerontology, chronic conditions and underserved minority populations.

This study is a natural progression of Dr. Beauluarier’s earlier research which focused on social work with people with disabilities and chronic conditions. Early research efforts focused on how treatment professionals’ understanding of disability and practice with people with chronic conditions changed after the Americans with Disabilities Act and similar legislation. He became a co-investigator on the largest study to date of consumer operated mental health services. The SAMHSA funded study focused primarily on empowerment oriented approaches to working with consumers. 

Dr. Beaulaurier’s research on disability related issues and empowerment eventually led him back to the field of aging, in which he had worked as a program services director and social worker before entering academe. After working on projects in several related areas, he joined a research team in the FIU Center on Aging that was developing a study on domestic violence in older women. He wrote the methodology for the the Domestic Violence Against Older Women (DVAOW) study which was funded in 2002 by National Institute of Justice (NIJ). The team conducted an exploratory qualitative study designed to describe the experience of functionally independent older women who were victims of family violence. A follow up to this study was funded by NIJ in 2006. The research team is currently in the process of testing a model of barriers to help seeking by older women who experience domestic violence that was developed primarily by Dr. Beaulaurier and Ms. Seff from the DVAOW study.

Dr. Beaulaurier's primary area of methodological expertise is in the area of qualitative methods--grounded theory methods in particular. He is frequently called on to help design qualitative research methodologies, to train interviewers and focus group leaders in interviewing and group management techniques, particularly with special populations such as Spanish speakers, older people and people who have been diagnosed with severe mental illnesses. Since he converted a statistics lab from mainframe to PC computing as a doctoral student to the present, he has found ways of combining his interest in research with advances in computer technology. He has consulted, authored articles and conducted research on the use of computers in teaching, research and service delivery. Most recently he has been writing and consulting on the use of Qualitative Data Analysis software such as Atlas.ti, Wordstat and QDA Miner.

Beaulaurier, R. L., Craig, S. L., & De La Rosa, M. (2009). Older Latina women and HIV/AIDS: An examination of sexuality and culture as they relate to risk and protective factors. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 52(1), 48-63.

Beaulaurier, R. L., Seff, L. R., & Newman, F. L. (2008). Barriers to help seeking for older women who experience intimate partner violence: A descriptive model. Journal of Women and Aging, 20(3/4), 231-248.

Seff, L. R., Beaulaurier, R. L., & Newman, F. L. (2008). Nonphysical abuse: Findings in the Domestic Violence Against Older Women Study Journal of Emotional Abuse, 8(3), 355 - 374.

Butler, S. F., Venuti, S. W., Benoit, C., Beaulaurier, R. L., Houle, B., & Katz, N. (2007). Internet surveillance: Content analysis and monitoring of product-specific Internet prescription opioid abuse-related postings. Clinical Journal of Pain, 23(7), 619-628.

Beaulaurier, R. L., Seff, L. R., Newman, F. L., & Dunlop, B. D. (2007). External barriers to help seeking for older women who experience intimate partner violence. Jounal of Family Violence, 22(7).

Beaulaurier, R. L., Seff, L. R., Newman, F. L., & Dunlop, B. D. (2005). Internal barriers to help seeking for middle aged and older women who experience intimate partner violence. Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, 17(3).

Beaulaurier, R. L. & Haffey M. F. (eds.) (2005). Technology and social work education. Special issue of the Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 25(1/2). Also published as Technology in Social Work Education and Curriculum: The High Tech, High Touch Social Work Educator. New York: Haworth Press.