Faculty
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Tenure-Track Faculty
Jamie Mitchell
As a social work and health disparities researcher, Jamie Mitchell has extensive experience conducting research on health behaviors and healthcare communication strategies to optimize well-being and longevity for older African Americans, with an emphasis on older African American men. Her ...
Katie E. Richards-Schuster
Katie Richards-Schuster, AM, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. She received her doctorate in Social Work and Sociology from the University of Michigan and her AM from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. Her ...
H. Luke Shaefer
H. Luke Shafer, PhD, is the Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy and Professor of Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. At U-M, he is also the inaugural director of Poverty Solutions, an interdisciplinary, ...
Matthew J. Smith
Matthew J. Smith, PhD, MSW, MPE, LCSW, received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed post-doctoral fellowships in psychiatric epidemiology and biostatistics at Washington University in St. Louis and in translational neuroscience at Northwestern University. Smith also ...
M. Candace Christensen
Dr. M. Candace Christensen (they/them) is an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Christensen’s research consists of a critical feminist approach to community engaged, qualitative and arts-based research methodologies that prevent and respond to gendered, ...
Lorraine M. Gutiérrez
Professor Lorraine Gutiérrez has a joint appointment with the School of Social Work (SSW) and Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan and is a faculty associate in American Culture. She also is a member of the SSW Community Organization Learning Community. Her teaching and ...
Mieko Yoshihama
Professor Yoshihama's research interests are violence against women, immigrants, mental health, and community organizing. Combining research and social action at local, state, national, and international levels over the last 25 years, Dr. Yoshihama focuses on the prevention of gender-based ...
Clinical and Research
Julie M. Ribaudo
Julie Ribaudo is a Clinical Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan. Before joining U-M in 2006, her career focused on parent-infant relational health; she practiced in a wide range of community-based programs, including community mental health, education and child welfare. In ...
Abigail H. Eiler
Abigail Eiler, MSW '06, is a licensed clinical social worker and educator with 20 years of experience working in tribal and non-tribal communities across the country and in Canada. In 2014, Eiler started as a LEO Lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and joined the ...
Lynn Videka
Lynn Videka, Carol T. Mowbray Collegiate Professor of Social Work, earned a BS degree in nursing with honors from the University of Illinois. She earned her AM and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago. Videka has dedicated her career to advancing social work research and to research ...
LEO
Jamie L. LaLonde
Jamie LaLonde, MSW ’14, developed a passion for healthcare and geriatrics during an internship at U-M’s Turner Senior Resource Center. For the past 20 years, she has used that passion to serve in roles within nursing home, assisted living, memory care and hospice spaces where she strives to ...
Jennifer K. Towns
Dr. Jennifer Towns (MSW ’05) has over 15 years working in the social work field, providing clinical treatment in a variety of settings including hospitals, community mental health departments and private practice. Her clinical work is founded upon a holistic approach and person-centered ...
Julie D. Cushman
Julie Cushman is currently a clinical director at Home of New Vision. She also has a private practice doing consulting and program evaluation for community services and agencies.
Sean J. de Four
Sean de Four currently serves as the President and CEO of Southwest Solutions, one of Detroit’s most innovative and impactful nonprofit organizations, which provides a range of services in the areas of behavioral health, economic self-sufficiency, workforce development, affordable housing, ...
Linda Edwards-Brown
Linda Edwards-Brown, LMSW, began her professional career with the Washtenaw County Trial Court where she served in various capacities. She retired from the court in 2020 as the Juvenile Division Administrator, a position she held for over twenty years. Edwards-Brown is passionate about juvenile ...
Jennifer T. Heckendorn
Jennifer Heckendorn, MSW’07 is a geriatric social worker who specializes in consultation and therapy for aging individuals, caregivers and family members through her private practice, Heckendorn Consultation and Therapy, PLLC. Heckendorn is also experienced in assisting families with issues ...
Jax Kynn
Jamie Kynn, MA, MSW, focuses on research methods, program evaluation, social welfare policies and violence prevention. Their work is centered on understanding violence at a macro-level and how social workers can improve how institutions interact with historically marginalized populations. Kynn ...
Jewel R. Woods
Jewel Woods (MA, MSW, LISW-S) serves as the founder and clinical director of Male Behavioral Health & the Center For Men & Boys. A licensed independent social worker with training supervision designation, Woods boasts over two decades of advocacy experience, working with and on behalf of ...
Emeritus
Ruth E. Dunkle
Professor Ruth Dunkle's research, teaching, and clinical practice focus on gerontology. Recent research projects include "Mothers of Adult Daughters with a Serious Mental Illness: The Experience of African Americans and Whites" and "An Historical Perspective of Social Service Delivery in Detroit ...
Sheila C. Feld
Sheila Feld joined the School of Social Work as an associate professor in 1969 and was promoted to professor in 1972. She held posts of assistant dean from 1971 to 1981 and head of the doctoral program from 1982 to 1989. From 1991 to 1993, she was interim associate dean of the School of Social ...
John E. Tropman
John Tropman is the director of Leadership in Community Benefit Organizations, a program initiated in the School of Social Work January 1, 2015 to organize and focus management content for management majors and Community Organization and Policy & Evaluation majors. His research focuses on the ...
David J. Tucker
Professor David Tucker's scholarly areas of interest include the formation, growth, and death of organizations; the structural analysis of inter-organizational service delivery systems; and the application of macro organizational theory to the analysis of selected social policy issues. His ...
Field Faculty
Amy C. Burandt
Amy C. Burandt (she / hers) joined the Office of Field Education team on March 15, 2021. Prior to coming on-board at the School of Social Work, her career focused on crisis intervention and suicide prevention, counseling individuals healing from trauma and sexual violence, mental health ...
Rosalva Osorio Cooksy
Rosalva Osorio joined the Office of Field Education as a field faculty and lecturer on December 9, 2019. They received a BA in sociology in 2004 and a Master of Social Work with a concentration in Community Organization and a minor in Interpersonal Practice in 2006, from the University of ...
Stacy L. Peterson
Stacy Peterson has been with the School of Social Work since 1999 as a field educator/lecturer/field liaison. She works primarily with students interested in children and youth, juvenile justice, child welfare, and the school social work practice concentrations. Prior to this, Stacy worked in ...