Faculty

Richard M. Tolman, LMSW, PhD, is a professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. He received his doctorate in social welfare from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his MSW from the University of Michigan. Professor Tolman's work focuses on the effectiveness of interventions designed to change violent and abusive behavior, and the impact of violence on the physical, psychological and economic well-being of victims He began his work in this area as a practitioner working with men who batter in 1980.

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 principles.

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 organizational elements that create high-performing human service (and other) organizations. Topics of special interest are entrepreneurship, effective group decision making, C-level executives, the problem of executive burnout and flameout, and organizational rewards systems.

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 recent work also focuses on questions about the production and validation of knowledge. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1990, Tucker served on the faculty at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Aimee Vantine joined the Office of Field Education as field faculty and a LEO lecturer in spring 2021. Prior to this, she spent 23 years at Michigan Medicine working in a variety of clinical and macro positions with a primary focus on pediatrics and obstetrics. She was the Children’s and Women’s Bereavement Program Manager at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital at Michigan Medicine for five years and, prior to this, was the Pediatrics and Obstetrics Social Work Supervisor.

Diane Kaplan Vinokur’s research focuses on the application of social psychological and organizational theories to human service organizations and their personnel. She studies the implications of such findings for non-profit management and social work practice.

Her most recent study, “The Under One Roof Project,” investigates the benefits and challenges of nonprofit centers to their co-located nonprofit tenant organizations and their communities.

Betsy Voshel served as the Director of Field Education and Associate Clinical Professor from September 2004 – April 2017 and upon her retirement became Associate Clinical Professor Emerita. She is a licensed master social worker (LMSW) with membership in the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW) since 1980 and she earned a post-master's teaching certificate from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003.

Carmen E. Wargel, LMSW, MSW '04, is a social change strategy nerd. She brings humanity to our social systems to make them more equitable. As the Deputy Director of Systemic Advocacy at a legal aid organization, she leads interdisciplinary legal services to bridge the justice gap in our civil legal system. Wargel is a systems thinker and interdisciplinarian at heart. She constantly makes connections between people, ideas and strategies to increase social justice for us all.