Kish is known for her work on social work, race and racism and is particularly interested in ethnically sensitive research methodologies and theories, such as modern racism, which test discriminatory attitudes and behaviours.

She has worked on commissioned evaluation projects which have enabled her to make recommendations directly to child protection agencies and has led on a number of publications which have questioned professional ideologies and beliefs, responses to child abuse within Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic families, cultural racism, anti-Muslim racism and Islamophobia.

Lisa has worked in the field of child welfare and child protection research for the past two decades and has specific interests in the impact of childhood adversity and the development of trauma informed children’s services. She has recently led on the first national prevalence survey of mental health problems and trauma exposure among Northern Ireland youth and, together with colleagues at Queen’s, has conducted a rapid evidence review of system-wide trauma informed care implementation to inform the regional roll-out of the NI Safeguarding Board’s Trauma Informed Initiative. She is currently working on analysis of children’s social care data to identify trends in the relationship between area level deprivation, involvement with child protection social work, and patterns of repeated service use over time.