Faculty

Jax 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 has experience in qualitative and quantitative research and evaluation, program management and grant writing, and they edit podcasts in their free time.

Dr. Ashley Lacombe-Duncan received her MSW (2010) and PhD (2018) from the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on healthcare access and health equity, with a particular focus on healthcare access for people who experience multiple forms of intersecting oppressions.

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 support patients, families and caregivers find satisfaction and joy.  She holds several certifications in dementia education and loves to support people in caregiving relationships to find success through education and outreach.

Ann Lampkin-Williams is a clinical professor of social work. Since 2017, Lampkin-Williams has served as dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Services at the University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-Dearborn). Under the umbrella of the College, she also guides the operations of the university's Early Childhood Education Center. Prior to her current appointment, she served as special counsel to the chancellor for inclusion and strategic projects. In this role, she championed complex personnel and operational transitions in support of UM-Dearborn's Metropolitan Vision.

Marlanna Landeros, MSW'13 is the program manager in human resources for diversity, equity and inclusion and student programs. She is responsible for developing initiatives and practices designed to promote a diverse and inclusive workforce in the Division of Public Safety & Security (DPSS). Among her core responsibilities, she advises leadership about strategic diversity and inclusive planning efforts and is responsible for the overall management of the DPSS student program. During the last twenty years she has worked in various capacities in public safety.

Kat Layton, MSW '18, is a licensed clinical social worker, harm reductionist,and public-sector leader whose work sits at the intersection of behavioral health, housing, the criminal legal system and community-centered policy. Her approach is deeply informed by over a decade of cross-sector direct service and personal experience connected to the criminal legal system, particularly her father's incarceration, bringing lived and professional knowledge into policy spaces often disconnected from the communities they aim to serve.

Dr. Shawna J. Lee is professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, where she also directs the Parenting in Context Research Lab and the Program Evaluation Group (PEG). Her research focuses on child maltreatment prevention, father involvement, parenting stress and family well-being.

Laura Lein is the former dean of the University of Michigan School of Social Work (2009-2016). Formerly professor of social work and anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), she was a respected researcher and teacher from 1985 to 2008. She has served as principal investigator on multiple grants on poverty, family and women's issues, and impoverished populations in Texas.

Associate Professor Edith Lewis's primary research interests include methods used by women of color to offset personal, familial, community, and professional role strain.