Dr. Christina Marsack-Topolewski is an associate professor of Social Work at Eastern Michigan University. She received a bachelor’s of science in Special Education from Wayne State University. Training under a fellowship at the University of Michigan, she received her master’s in Social Work. Dr. Marsack-Topolewski received her PhD in Social Work from Wayne State University. She has worked with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) and their families for over 20 years. Her practice work has been in both the public schools and a clinical setting. She has over 70 peer-reviewed publications in national and international journals and encyclopedias. Her research predominantly focuses on individuals with IDDs, their caregivers, compound caregiving, coping and self-care, service use and delivery, as well as future planning. Dr. Marsack-Topolewski was awarded the Ronald W. Collins Distinguished Faculty Award for Research Excellence. She has collaborated on multiple grant-funded projects tailoring services to individuals with IDDs and other disabilities. In 2019, she was appointed to the board of the National Task Group on Intellectual Disability and Dementia Practices. She is engaged in policy advocacy and has provided testimony at the state-level (Michigan) to advocate for state house bills that would provide legal protections for vulnerable populations, such as individuals with IDDs. The first of these was signed into law in Michigan in December 2023.