An early diagnosis of type 1 diabetes and a Jewish upbringing in New York that emphasized education, activism, volunteerism and making positive social changes brought Wendy Auslander to her career in social work and research.

“Those forces, all way beyond my control, led me to where I am,” said Auslander, 57. A professor at Washington University’s George Warren Brown School of Social Work, her research focuses on health promotion and prevention, primarily with adolescents.

“Doing research is like learning for a living,” Auslander said. “I really enjoy coming up with ideas, doing creative thinking about social problems and health problems.”

This month, Auslander will present her research at the International Family Violence and Child Victimization Research Conference in Portsmouth, N.H. and the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.

Auslander made time recently to talk about her work.

Last fall, Washington University received a five-year, $3 million grant to establish a new center to develop better ways to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes in high-risk patients. You are associate director of the Center. What is your goal?

We want to eliminate disparities in diabetes prevention and treatment by translating evidence-based intervention to the community. The focus is on Native Americans and native Alaskans, as well as health disparities across all ethnic groups.

What was your experience after being diagnosed with diabetes at age 12?

It wasn’t a great experience, though I saw the best doctors in New York. People thought of diabetes then as an old person’s disease and I didn’t know anybody my age that had it. Also, they didn’t have the tools to control it then that they have now.

In graduate school at Washington University, you had an opportunity to work with teens with diabetes. How did that affect your career choice?

I volunteered to help on a psychologist’s study with adolescent kids who have type 1 diabetes at Children’s Hospital. I interviewed the kids, and I loved it. That was the beginning of my interest in research on kids with diabetes and their families.

What happened next?

I decided to get a Ph.D. at Washington University, where I continued to look at newly diagnosed families and to study characteristics that promote good control of the disease. I also have researched the emotional, psychological and social issues that are barriers for kids with diabetes to do well.

You are the principal investigator for a study on trauma treatment for girls with histories of maltreatment. The goal of the study, which is funded by the Centers for Disease Control, is to prevent future interpersonal violence. Talk a bit about that.

The study is conducted with adolescents in the child welfare system and deals with treating mental health problems. The kids are loving this intervention, so even if the science comes out with no significant findings, I feel we have given something to kids in the community.

What are the findings so far?

Along with our community partners on the study, we have anecdotal success stories, stories about kids doing better in school, and within their families. Adolescence is hard for everybody, but a lot of these girls are on medications and have multiple problems. Still, some of them, despite tragic histories, are building on their resilience to make it through.

Your intervention studies mesh well with your interest in social work. Is that fulfilling?

You see inequities in society, so you take what you know and what you care about, and you try to come up with ideas for solutions, ways to advance science while promoting health. Then you look at where you can get funds and you look at how to get a team of people to carry out the study. It’s a challenge, but it’s exciting — and you end up providing services and programs for people in the community.

Could it get any better?

I’m in social work. If all the problems in the world would go away, I’d be happy.