Faculty

Jennifer Heckendorn, MSW’07 is a geriatric social worker who specializes in consultation and therapy for aging individuals, caregivers and family members through her private practice, Heckendorn Consultation and Therapy, PLLC. Heckendorn is also experienced in assisting families with issues related to placement, medicare/medicaid, advanced directives and end of life care.

Grace Helms Kotre (she/her), MSW ’07, is passionate about integrating contemplative practices into social justice education. She is committed to unlearning systemic whiteness and employing anti-racist and anti-oppressive pedagogies. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in social work, community action and social change, and radical self- and collective care. She is a Certified Mindfulness Instructor with a daily meditation practice since 2009, and she has been engaged in social justice community organizing, advocacy and education since 2006.

Dr. Herrenkohl’s primary research interests focus on the areas of child and family well-being, child maltreatment and the psychosocial and developmental underpinnings of health-risk behaviors in youth and adults; substance use, mental and physical health outcomes of adversity; and resilience. He has also worked to raise awareness of the causes and consequences of violence in children and families and to promote the use of public health models of primary prevention.

Barb Hiltz is a clinical associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Hiltz is a licensed social worker (LMSW) and also holds a EdM in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership with a focus on diversity and equity in education. Hiltz’s work focuses on the sustainability of community-based organizations, including the role of innovation, social enterprise and social entrepreneurship in shaping social service delivery. Other areas of expertise include leadership, human resource management, fund and program development, and fiscal management.

Professor Joseph Himle's research interests focus on mental health intervention research with adults and youth. Himle's current intervention projects include mental health intervention trials focused on bringing cognitive behavioral therapy to underserved populations. He has been the Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, or Mentor on a total of 20 research grants funded by the National Institutes of Health in addition to receiving funding from a range of other sources.

Justin Hodge is a Clinical Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan. He is the co-lead for the Policy & Political Social Work Pathway and the director of the Online Certificate in Political Social Work. Hodge is committed to increasing the presence of social workers in policy and political spaces. He teaches courses that provide students with the tools to engage in politics and approach policy work from a social justice perspective.

Greg Hoffman, MSW, is a lecturer, community organizer, and program evaluator based in Metro Detroit. He has worked as a community organizer in Detroit for more than a decade, helping to develop sustainable community organizations. In addition to teaching in the MSW Program, Hoffman works as a consultant for Mission Lift, a BIPOC-owned and operated consulting firm that has served Metro Detroit for more than 20 years. Hoffman’s consulting work focuses on program evaluation, grant writing and organizational development for various non-profits in Metro Detroit.

Leslie Hollingsworth retired on 5/31/2016. Her research interests have focused on circumstances surrounding the lives of vulnerable children and families across the child welfare and mental health systems and their implications for social work practice and policy. Her adoption-related research examined perspectives and experiences of members of the adoption triad - adopted individuals, adoptive parents, and birth parents. She also evaluated the effects of Africentric curricular content on students’ knowledge, values, and skills in interpersonal practice with African American families.

Professor Berit Ingersoll-Dayton is interested in social support and clinical research with respect to families in later life. Within the area of social support, she focused on positive and negative aspects of support, gender differences, issues of equity and reciprocity, and cross-cultural differences in marital and intergenerational relationships. In relation to clinical research, she has assessed various group interventions with the elderly, intergenerational family therapy approaches, and methods of assisting employed caregivers of the elderly.