Faculty

Professor Mary Ruffolo’s research focused on integrated behavioral health and primary care, organizational factors that influence sustaining evidence-based interventions/programs in community behavioral health settings, adapting efficacious interventions for children and youth experiencing serious mental health challenges, and addressing ways to disseminate interventions with at-risk populations. Recently, working with faculty in Norway, the UK and Australia, Ruffolo studied psychological well-being in adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joe Ryan's research and teaching build upon his direct practice experiences with child welfare and juvenile justice populations. Dr. Ryan is the Co-Director of the Child and Adolescent Data Lab an applied research center focused on using data to drive policy and practice decisions in the field.

Fatima Salman, LLMSW, is a macro social worker and community organizer. As part of the School’s ENGAGE team, she works with communities and organizations in Wayne and Washtenaw counties to increase their capacity and resources in order to meet their goals. Through the work of ENGAGE, she runs the Employment Equity Action and Learning Collaborative, a collaborative of 65+ stakeholders that works together to leverage resources and foster just and equitable economic development solutions for individuals in the city of Detroit.

Monica Sampson, MSW ’00, is a clinical faculty member of the School of Social Work, where she teaches MSW courses across both macro and micro pathways. With over 31 years of experience as a clinical and macro social worker, Sampson has dedicated her career to working with vulnerable children, youth, families and communities. Her teaching emphasizes diversity, equity and inclusion, grounding all content in an anti-racist, social justice framework that highlights the core principles of power, oppression, intersecting social identities and structural privilege and marginalization.

With a master's degree in social work from the University of Michigan, Laura Sanders has been an adjunct instructor in U of M's graduate program since 1996. She provides contractual and private therapy, consultation, training, supervision, and expert witness testimony in the areas of sexual abuse and other trauma, attachment and adoption, and issues of gender and sexuality.

Daniel Saunders, professor of social work, established one of the first intervention programs for men who batter and helped to establish crisis and advocacy programs for battered women in the 1970s. His research, teaching, and service center on the problems of dating and domestic violence. His specific studies focus on offender program evaluation, the traumatic effects of victimization, and the response of professionals and the public to dating and domestic violence.

Sue Ann Savas is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. She received her MSW and BA in economics from the University of Michigan. For the past 20 years, Sue Ann practiced as a program evaluator. She specializes in the areas of program design, logic modeling, evaluation planning, implementation evaluations, outcome measurement, and reporting for continuous quality improvement. She uses an interdisciplinary approach, collaborating with providers from the fields of social work, public health, environmental health, and education.

Dr. Katie Schultz focuses her research on health equity among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations. She examines violence and associated health outcomes, including substance misuse, among AI/AN women and girls; community and cultural connectedness as protective factors; and culturally-grounded interventions. A citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, she is interested in innovative conceptual and methodological research with tribal communities rooted in Indigenous knowledges and sustainable solutions by and for Native peoples.

Associate Professor Emeritus Brett Seabury has a primary interest in interpersonal practice and has practiced social work in mental health and child welfare settings, as well as in the U.S. Army. His current research and teaching interests are social work education, time-limited practice, using metaphors in social work practice, and indigenous (alternative) healing systems. His most current interests involve the use of information technology in the classroom, and the use of the Internet to deliver interactive video simulations designed to teach social work practice skills.