Dr Cynthia Okpokiri is a social work lecturer at University of East Anglia. Cynthia has wide-ranging social work research, scholarship, and practice experience. Her research has explored child safeguarding and parenting, including Black and Black African child welfare and family dynamics in Western and African contexts. Using insights from her research with Black parents in Britain, Cynthia developed a distinct Black parenting style termed requisite parenting^©, which she has evaluated in a recent study funded by Barnardo’s Children’s Charity (Okpokiri, 2024).

Cynthia is a registered social worker. Cynthia continues to engage with frontline social work practice by providing independent research-informed expertise on child welfare and protection, social work with peoples of the Global South, and Black parenting, to local authorities’ social services and non-statutory organisations.

In addition to other research engagements, Cynthia has undertaken Department for Education (DfE) systematic review of Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (LCSPR) in England with colleagues at UEA and other HEIs. She is involved in cross-national social work knowledge exchange, working closely with a select group of academics and practitioners across Europe, Australia, and Africa.

Dr Okpokiri has other current academic and practice related roles including:

• Member of Council of Deans of Health EDI Strategic Policy Group
• Higher Education Academy, Fellow (FHEA)
• Member of British Association of Social Workers
• Senior Adviser, School of Social Work & Sociology, UEA
• Plagiarism Officer, School of Social Work & Sociology, UEA

Cynthia is often invited to share her expertise on the intersections of culture, child welfare, and social work theories and practice with peoples of the Global South to organisations and the media; she has contributed at numerous conferences, training programmes, on television, radio, online, and newsprint, including BBC East News, BBC Radio Essex, and Cambridge Network News.

Cynthia is an award winning academic, having won the Kay McDougall British Journal of Social Work Award in 2021. Her publications include co-edited book and journal articles. She is a journal and book reviewer for several publishers.

Dr Okpokiri is currently supervising two doctoral research candidates. Her research interests and potential supervision areas include:

• Children and family dynamics
• Child protection; privileging children
• Parenting; privileging parents/carers
• Alternative knowledges, methodologies, and epistemologies
• Efficacy of social work
• Migration, social cohesion, difference, and ‘Ubuntu’
• Well-being, equality, equity, and social justice
• Theories of social science and social work