Faculty

Terri Gilbert, MSW ‘87, has held executive level positions in both public and private non-profit organizations, directing programs serving vulnerable families, children and adults. Her experience spans the service array from child welfare and juvenile justice to mental health and developmental disabilities, workforce training and development. Ms.

Martha Gizynski became a lecturer at the school in 1969 while working in the university's Institute of Human Adjustment, and she was appointed as assistant professor of social work in 1974. Her retirement in 1986 as associate professor emerita marked the departure of one of the most accomplished teachers and clinicians on the School of Social Work faculty.

Tammie B. Glenn is currently a consultant with Wayne State University School of Medicine MIFAST initative, a cooperative project with the State of Michigan office of Community Mental Health, and Project CARE, a cooperative project with Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health.

Irena J. Glover, MSW '00, PhD ’16, is an experienced licensed clinical social worker with 20 years experience in non-profit, academic and community settings. Currently, Glover focuses on interpersonal practice with children and adults providing individual, couples and family therapy. Through her private practice, Glover employs evidence-based practices to support her clients in restoring and maintaining balance in their lives.

Karla Goldman's research focuses on the history of the American Jewish experience with special attention to the history of American Jewish communities and the evolving roles and contributions of American Jewish women. She directs the University of Michigan Jewish Communal Leadership Program, a collaborative effort between the School of Social Work and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies.

Odessa Gonzalez Benson, PhD, MSW, is an associate professor at the School of Social Work and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and a faculty affiliate with the LSA International Institute Center for Southeast Asian Studies. Her areas of research are refugee resettlement, state-civil society relations (regarding migration), labor migration, critical policy studies and epistemic justice and the production of knowledge in social welfare studies and forced migration studies, with three broad aspects to her research.

Kathy Greening has focused her social work career on the welfare of children and families. She has worked as a child and family therapist, intake and assessment specialist, clinical supervisor, and program coordinator in children’s mental health settings. She has prepared families to adopt children and provided developmental assessment and intervention for infants to preschool-aged children, their families and caregivers. She has 20 years of experience as an MDE-approved school social worker, providing assessment and intervention for children in need of special education in public schools.

Andrew (Andy) Grogan-Kaylor's research focuses on scientific knowledge development and intervention research with children and families, with the aim of reducing violence against children and improving family and child well-being. Grogan-Kaylor's current research projects examine parenting behaviors such as physical punishment and parental expressions of emotional warmth and support, and their effects on children's aggression, antisocial behavior, anxiety and depression.

Professor Emerita Lorraine Gutiérrez held a joint appointment with the School of Social Work (SSW) and Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan and was a faculty associate in American Culture. She also was a member of the SSW Community Organization Learning Community. Her teaching and scholarship focuses on multicultural praxis in communities, organizations and higher education. She brings to her work community-based practice and research in multiethnic communities in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit and Seattle.

Greer Hamilton (she/her) is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. As a place-based researcher, her work seeks to examine how systems of oppression are embedded into the built environment and subsequently impact people’s health, well-being and use of public spaces. Her work often uses community-engaged, arts-based and embodied approaches to understand study participants’ experiences with places of meaning (e.g., neighborhoods).