Dimitri earned his PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006. From 2006 until 2008, he worked in a clinical social work capacity for the Department of Health and Human Services of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. He maintains a limited role with this agency while on faculty at the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare.

The following substantive areas represent his primary research activity to date: the long-term effects of child maltreatment, interventions aimed at preventing or treating child maltreatment, and the long-term impacts of an early childhood intervention. Additional interests include evaluation of trauma resolution techniques for both children and adults along with evaluation of innovative programming for juvenile and criminal justice populations, e.g., mindfulness/meditation training for adolescent or adult offenders.