R. Anna Hayward's research interests include father involvement among low-income families, parental incarceration and its impact on families and children, and environmental and ecological justice including the impacts of climate change and natural disasters. For the past 10 years she has served as the principal investigator evaluating the federally funded Long Island Fatherhood Initiative (https://www.greatfathers.org).  Dr. Hayward has served as Fulbright Scholar to Jamaica  (2014-2015) where she studied environmental justice in the Caribbean, and a Fulbright Senior Scholar to Spain (2022) where she examined the impact of natural disasters (including the COVID-19 pandemic) on young adults at the University of Málaga.