Publications

Peer-Reviewed 

Wilke, N., Howard, A. H., Morgan, M., & Hardin, M. (2020). Adverse childhood experiences and problematic media use: the roles of attachment and impulsivity. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 15(4), 344–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450128.2020.1734706

• This paper introduces a teaching method that helps organizations transition from orphan to family-based models of care. Using a fictional case study, organizations walk through the six changes needed for restructure: engagement, case management, families, asset transitions, measurement, and fundraising. Organizations go home with a personalized transition plan that they created in this immersive workshop. 

 

Wilke, N., Pop, D., Oswald, E., Howard, A., & Morgan, M. (2020). Moving towards family solutions: An introduction to an immersive simulation workshop. Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2349300319894499

• This study examined how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) relate to problematic media use in adults (n = 616), finding that attachment style mediated this relationship. Anxious attachment was associated with more problematic media use while avoidant attachment was associated with less, and both attachment dimensions also operated indirectly through impulsivity.

 

Books and Long Form

Created to Heal: How Neuroplasticity Offers Hope for Children & Their Families (2024)

• Designed for practitioners as a teaching tool, to validate foster and adoptive adult experience, and as an educational comfort for anyone working with those who have experienced hardship in their life. 

Community of Practice for African Leaders. (in press). Evaluation of Promising Practices for Family Strengthening and Alternative Family Care in Africa.

• This report documents a multi-country evaluation of nine African organizations implementing family strengthening and alternative care models, using the SIFE framework that assessed which practices are most effective, replicable, and ready for scale-up. We identify promising, community-rooted approaches to preventing child-family separation and advancing deinstitutionalization across diverse African contexts, and offer practical recommendations for policymakers, donors, and practitioners. I contributed to the study design, tool development & portions of the documentation itself. 

 

From the Field

• Morgan, M. (in press). The origins of Victory Child Empowerment. Victory Child Empowerment.

• Morgan, M. (in press). Three Steps Forward, Five Steps Back. Victory Child Empowerment.

• Morgan, M. (in press). How VCE Built a County-Wide Care Reform Map for Kisii. Victory Child Empowerment.

 

Collaborative Resources

From 2016–2020 I worked with the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) to conduct systematic literature reviews and develop research-based resources for practitioners working with vulnerable children and families. These are some of the resources I contributed to, categorized by topic:

• Neuroplasticity Series (2018)

  • Created to Heal book (above) 

    • The Brain is Created to Heal, Understanding Neuroplasticity and the Hope of Healing (self-paced ecourse)

      • El Celebro Cambiante (systematic review/guidebook)

• Vulnerable Children in a Digital Age Series (2019)

  • Vulnerable Children in a Digital Age (systematic review/booklet)

  • Vulnerable Children in a Digital Age (booklet)

    • Niños Vulnerables en la Era Digital (systematic review/guidebook)

    • La Niñez Vulnerable en una Era Digital (booklet)

• Attachment Series (2020)

  • Attachment after Adversity: Building Resilience through Relationship (systematic review/guidebook)

    • El Apego Despues de la Adversidad (systematic lit review/guidebook)

    • Construyendo la Resiliencia por Medio de las Relaciones (booklet)

• Children with Disabilities (2021)

  • Helping Children with Disabilities Thrive (systematic lit review/guidebook)