Research

Research Interests

Learning Partnerships & Transitioning Leadership

How do we support youth-serving organizations to become more participatory and community-led? I work with partners to develop Learning Partnerships — an ethical-methodological approach that draws from developmental evaluation, participatory action research, and adaptive leadership. The goal is to transition organizational leadership to those most impacted by the issues programs seek to solve.

Data Justice & Community Informatics

I study the political economy of data: how data collection, AI, and proprietary infrastructures reshape human service organizations and the lives of young people. I also work toward alternatives — community-controlled data practices, data cooperatives, and frameworks that center justice over efficiency.

Publications

• Ideathons as anti-oppressive social work pedagogy: A case study with counter-narrative
  Samimi, C., Fink, A., & Pfefferkorn, M.. Social Work Education (2025).
• Exploring folk theories of data labor in human services
  Fink, A. & Goldkind, L.. Economic Anthropology, 12(2) (2025).
• Examining state policy responses to racial disparities in social work licensure exams
  Nienow, M., Apgar, D., Fink, A., & Quinonez, J.. Advances in Social Work, 25(2) (2025).
• AI in the nonprofit human services: Distinguishing between hype, harm, and hope
  Goldkind, L., Ming, J., & Fink, A.. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance (2024).
• Data cooperative
  Fink, A.. Internet Policy Review, 13(2) (2024).
• Everybody teach! Upending traditional disciplinary curriculum to create co-taught, praxis-based higher education courses
  Fink, A., Habtamu, B., Kunkel-Linares, A., Pence, M., Woller, K., & Alexander, I.. Disrupting Hierarchy in Education, Teachers College Press (2024).
• Leadership to what end? Connecting our practice to broader movements
  Fink, A.. New Directions in Student Leadership, 181 (2024).
• The classroom as laboratory: A theoretical grounding of the Intentional Emergence framework
  Werner, L. & Fink, A.. New Directions in Student Leadership, 181 (2024).
• The Learning Partner: Dialogic approaches to monitoring and evaluation in international social development
  VeLure Roholt, R., Fink, A., & Ahmed, M. M.. Knowledge Management for Development Journal, 17(1/2) (2023).
• Emerging tensions in data work: Staff and youth perspectives in youth-serving organizations
  Fink, A. & VeLure Roholt, R.. Social Service Review, 96(4) (2022).
• Surfacing human service organizations' data use practices: Toward a critical performance measurement framework
  Fink, A. & VeLure Roholt, R.. Journal of Community Informatics, 18 (2022).
• Real big data: How we know who we know in youth work
  Fink, A. & Brito, M.. Child & Youth Services (2020).
• Bigger data, less wisdom: The need for more inclusive collective intelligence in social service provision
  Fink, A.. AI & Society, 33(1) (2018).

Books & Edited Volumes

• Handbook of Youth Futures
  VeLure Roholt, R., Fink, A., & Johnston-Goodstar, K. (Eds.). De Gruyter Press (2027).
• Handbook of Youth Social Work
  VeLure Roholt, R. & Fink, A. (Eds.). Edward Elgar Publishing (2027).

Presentations

• Strengthening interdisciplinary capacity and engagement in community-based data science
  Fink, A. & Zobitz, J.. ARNOVA Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA (Nov 2026).
• Civic youth work: Healing ourselves and repairing a fractured world
  VeLure Roholt, R. & Fink, A.. Critical Youth Work, Weimar, Germany (Aug 2026).
• Critical youth futures in an era of predictive surveillance
  Fink, A. & VeLure Roholt, R.. Critical Youth Work, Weimar, Germany (Aug 2026).
• Strengthening interdisciplinary undergraduate capacity in community-based data science
  Zobitz, J., Fink, A., Forstie, M., & Bamattre, R.. International Conference on Teaching Statistics, Brisbane, AU (July 2026).
• Toward acknowledgements of the more-than-human in the material production of AI
  Fink, A., Nienow, M., & Brito, M.. European Conference on Social Work Research, Aberdeen, UK (Apr 2026).
• Creating tools to support anti-oppressive co-determination in practice
  Fink, A. & Moua, K. N.. Council on Social Work Education, Kansas City, MO (Oct 2024).
• Transitioning leadership to those most impacted by social issues
  Fink, A. & VeLure Roholt, R.. Minnesota Social Service Association Webinar (Apr 2024).
• Developing open educational resources using popular education
  Fink, A. & Samimi, C.. Council on Social Work Education, Anaheim, CA (Oct 2023).

Awards & Grants

• Distinguished Teaching, Early Career Faculty
  Augsburg University (2026).
• Tony Bibus Social Work Faculty of the Year
  National Association of Social Workers – MN Chapter (2026).
• NSF HNDS: Advancing motivational science through labor force capacity building and community data science infrastructure
  National Science Foundation, $220,956 (2025–2028). Co-PI with John Zobitz