Class Notes

Dr. Harry Hunter has been promoted from Clinical Assistant Professor to Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.

“I quit my job. I was a single, 42-year-old woman and I quit my job. It was an awesome job.”

These are the opening sentences of my book, Midlife Calm: An Alternative to Midlife Crisis, published in June 2022. This is the moment that cast me forth into my midlife calm and my current vocation of coaching – both centered around creating freedom, abundance, and generosity. My story is about getting closer to my authentic truths, clarity about what I was avoiding, and self-trust.

My intention for Midlife Calm is to create curiosity in individuals, sparking conversations, cultivating new paradigms, shifting cultural norms, and healing our world. All of which happens one human at a time.

It is the honor of a lifetime to be present with people as they unleash their potential and step into lives they have always dreamed of living. It is a blessing to create financial stability all while being true to myself and in contribution to the world. It is a gift to be in this adventure of life!

My most recent publication is now available online. It is a qualitative study of hospice social workers' perceptions of flaws in the Medicare Hospice Benefit. It followed a similar study of hospice nurses. Here are the links:

Cabin, W. (2022). It’s Just Too Much: The Financial Calculus in Hospice. Home Health Care Management and Practice. Published online June 8, 2022:

https://doi.org/10.1177/10848223221102544

Cabin, W. (2022). The Hospice Algorithm: Capitalizing on Death and Dying. Home Health Care

Management and Practice. Published online March 18, 2022:

https://DOI:10.1177/10848223221085992

My social work career began at UofM where I learned the importance of research. The skills and knowledge I gained there has led me to my faculty career. I have been promoted to full Professor. I am the first Latina full professor in the history of the University of Connecticut School of Social Work. It’s a reflective moment: What’s more important, the journey or the destination? My answer without a doubt is the company along the way, the relationships we build. Without my supportive family, friends, colleagues and mentors I would never have made it here. My vision for what is next is clear: to raise up the academic mothers, doctoral students, minority scholars, and all those on this path, to success.

EarthWell Retreat Center Presents: A Day of Renewal - Yoga and Mindfulness Retreat for Mental Health Professionals.

Led by alumnae Emily Adama, MSW, and Ariana Wakeman, MSW.

Saturday, May 28, 2022, 9:30 am to 6:15 pm

Cost: $110 for Saturday programming (includes lunch)

Overnight accommodations and retreat extension (May 27-29) available for additional fee.

Located In Manchester, MI - 30 minutes from Ann Arbor!

For mental health professionals, nothing is more important than our own wellbeing. Allow yourself to feel nourished and supported in a day of both deep self-care and collective care at EarthWell’s nature sanctuary. Revisit and learn techniques for preventing burnout, as well as enjoy two all-level yoga sessions, mindfulness meditations, embodiment practices, massage, and community-building with others in the mental health field.

Visit https://www.earthwellretreat.com/group-retreats for more information and to sign up!

Michael A. Dover, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., B.S.W, LISW, has committed his entire life and career to social justice. His peer-reviewed publications include human needs, oppression/exploitation, microaggressions, and cross-cultural practice, including the first-ever entries on human need in the NASW Encyclopedia of Social Work. He was co-convenor of the Bertha Capen Reynolds Society and served as editor of Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping. His students’ work was featured in NASW News, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where his op-eds appeared on human services, school funding, nuclear disarmament, police use of force, youth unemployment, and human needs. His AAUP Academe blog on Ending Institutional Racism in Higher Education led to his current research. He has been a member of NASW since 1977, promoting engagement amongst his students and advocating for improvements within the organization. In 2011, he served as co-founder of the Cuyahoga County Conference on Social Welfare.

Chyrell Bellamy, PhD, MSW, associate professor of psychiatry, has been appointed director of the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH). Bellamy’s appointment took effect March 7, 2022. PRCH aims to be multicultural, antiracist and consists of a multi-disciplinary team of people with lived experience, practitioners, researchers, educators, and advocates whose mission is to promote civil rights, recovery and the restoration of citizenship/belonging among individuals with mental and physical health illnesses. Bellamy has been at Yale and with PRCH since 2006. She has an international reputation as a thought and practice leader and researcher in the areas of peer support/peer-run programs, leadership development, health disparities, community-based participatory research (CBPR), and co-production. Her research is focused on sociocultural pathways of recovery and healing from mental distress, trauma, mental illness, substance use, HIV, and other health or life challenges.

Alum Cherish Fields becomes an author in the book "Where Social Work Can Lead You". When most people think of Social Work; Child Protective Services, low wages, and challenging work may come to mind. This book is a refreshing and eye-opening view into the humans behind the profession; the journeys into, around, and even out of Social Work. In this book, you will find stories of journeys from long ago and journeys just beginning. Storytelling is social action. This is collective building through journey stories shared. This book serves as a professional call to action. All those who come into, around, or out of social work have a personal journey, and directly parallel, all those served by the field of social work have a journey story. Let’s be reminded that the helping profession of social work was in fact built on passions professionalized. To Purchase: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VY7PQ2R

Dr. John Paul Abenojar is a proud graduate of University of Michigan School of Social Work where he received his MSW degree specializing in human services management. He moved to Arlington, Virginia after graduation and began working as a social worker in long-term care facilities. At that time, he realized that one of his greatest passions was working with the elderly. Dr. Abenojar also founded the Napo Difference Initiative in his home country of the Philippines, with the mission of reaching out, raising hope, and changing society. Some of the programs included in the Napo Difference Initiative are the Kuya at Ate Peer Mentoring Program, the Quarterly Lecture Series, and the Summer Tutorial.

In 2017, he received his Doctorate in Health Services from Walden University.

The course work leading to my MSW provided an invaluable underpinning for understanding not only the interplay of individuals but also the role and ability of organizations (both formal and informal) to inform/influence/negotiate/dictate. This insight has assisted me in my 30+ years as a community organizer, settlement house director, public school building administrator, public and state central office administrator. Equally important was the interaction both in and out of the classroom with a diverse student body. This was augmented by a stimulating and challenging faculty that authored the research and writings that informed and challenged other academicians and practitioners.