James Huguley
Signing Day for Startups

This social scientist turned entrepreneur supports Black parents with an innovative program

Tags
  • Innovation and Research
  • Innovation Institute
  • Propel scholarship, creativity and innovation
  • Be welcoming and engaged
  • School of Social Work

Parenting is hard no matter who you are. But it can be especially difficult for people in marginalized communities.

James Huguley has transformed his scholarly work on race and human development into Parent Heart Inc., an evidence-based company supporting African American parents. One of its programs, Parenting While Black: Growing and Healing Together, (PWB) provides a research-backed curriculum that addresses crucial aspects of Black parenting often overlooked in parenting resources.

“When we think about parenting resources, there are lots of traditional, evidence-based resources. There is ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting,’ but we don’t see ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting Racism,’” said Huguley, an associate professor in the School of Social Work and chair of the Race and Youth Development Research Group at Pitt’s Center on Race and Social Problems. “That’s been a challenge that our families have addressed internally for generations with very little research or evidence-based guidance to support them.”

PWB, launched in 2021, has reached more than 150 parents, providing them with parenting strategies and a supportive community. “I think one of the really powerful things about this work is it’s a convening of people that begin to realize they’re not alone in this journey,” Huguley said.

The PWB curriculum focuses on four key areas: promoting positive racial identity, helping children cope with discrimination, supporting educational involvement as Black parents and fostering intergenerational mental wellness and racial stress coping.

“We talk about Black mental health from a race perspective,” Huguley said, “and how racism is a mental health stressor, what self-care looks like, and what strategies to support our children look like.”

PWB’s strength lies in its dual approach, leaning heavily on evidence-based methods as well as using community-based approaches. “We often think about teaching our children about their heritage and history, and that is important,” Huguley said. “But what’s probably even more important is connectedness and being in spaces that validate you — from your communal spaces to cultural programs to family reunions.”

To this end, PWB collaborates with community organizations, including Awaken Pittsburgh for mindfulness practices, and programs like Homewood Children's Village, Macedonia FACE and Small Seeds in the Hill District.

This community aspect proves particularly valuable when parents face challenges. “Parents don’t feel alone when they have to think about dealing with, for example, their school unfairly disciplining their child,” Huguley said. “There are people in the room that can sympathize and empathize, but even better, they’re from that community. They know that school, and they can be strategic in their responses.”

The program also helps parents find success within existing systems.

“Lots of our parents are in schools that are challenged economically. They don’t have all the great programs, but there are pathways to success in any of those buildings,” Huguley said. “When parents are connected, we call them navigational supporters. They know their schools have some limitations, but they find and share ways to navigate that system.”

Pitt is ranked No. 14 nationally for U.S. patents, with 114 in the past year alone. Over the past seven years, the University has spun out 109 companies from Pitt technologies.

Want to be one of them? If you are a Pitt faculty, staff or student with an interest in pursuing commercialization of a business idea or research innovation, contact the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at innovate [at] pitt.edu.

 

A social science startup

Huguley has taken an innovative path to implementing PWB. Rather than following the traditional route of continually applying for grants to work with established groups, Huguley filed an invention disclosure with the Innovation Institute, part of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. They assisted him with protecting his intellectual property with a copyright.

Entrepreneurship is an uncommon pathway for social scientists. “It’s not as normalized as it is in medical sciences, or other sciences, but there’s a growing understanding of its importance,” he said.

Huguley’s entrepreneurial journey began when he won an award in the Pitt Innovation Challenge (PINCH) in 2021 and realized he might have a commercially viable idea that could help him reach parents. He then participated in the Innovation Institute’s Equitable, Inclusive, Innovation, and Incubation Fellowship Program (EI3), which was designed to help historically excluded people participate in entrepreneurship. Huguley says the EI3 program provided invaluable coaching, mentoring and hands-on learning in innovation commercialization.

“I’ve done a lot of grant work trying to raise money for programs,” Huguley said. “But funders don’t fund you forever. You need more sustainable mechanisms with wider distributed potential than foundation and federal grant funds.” Pitt’s innovation ecosystem was his solution.

As both a researcher and parent, Huguley brings a unique perspective to his work. He continues his research at Pitt, which informs the program’s evolution. “But I am a parent too, so I’m in there just like you. You might teach me something today,” he said.

To create a program that has staying power and can evolve with the times, he said, “At the end of the day, you’re going to have to find an approach that’s self-sustaining; either individuals can support themselves, or organizations can support themselves,” Huguley said. “Working with EI3 and the Innovation Institute is shortening that pathway in a way that’s been truly effective.”

 

Photography by Tom Altany