Faculty

Talia Ingham joined the School of Social Work Office of Field Education field office as a Field Faulty in 2025 after beginning with the office as an administrator in 2018, continuing as a work study while completing the MSW program, and later moving into the placement coordinator role in 2023. Ingham has provided direct service work as a therapist in a private practice setting as well as through Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County's counseling and home visiting parenting program.

Kathryn Irish, PhD, LMSW, CAADC, has 10+ years of clinical practice experience across a diverse range of settings including community mental health, private practice and methadone maintenance. She has also worked as a clinician for the U.S. Federal Criminal Justice System and held administrative roles in managed health care as a senior clinical-quality consultant. Irish has a clinical specialization in alcohol and drug treatment (CAADC). She recently completed her PhD in social work at Michigan State University with a doctoral cognate in neuroscience.

Vance K. Jackson, Jr., MSW ’06, is the founder and CEO of NEXX Consulting Group, LLC, a multifaceted advisory firm delivering fund development, executive advisory and organizational strategy solutions across corporate, community, municipal and philanthropic sectors.

Professor Emeritus Siri Jayaratne has been studying the effects of work stress on the health and well-being of social workers since 1979, and is currently working with colleagues analyzing data from a longitudinal study of child welfare workers. His program of research has included four national surveys of social workers, as well as a study of social workers and their spouses. Jayaratne is also exploring aspects of client violence towards social workers in the workplace. Other areas of research/scholarly interest: social work practice; practice evaluation; program evaluation.

Dr. Jester earned her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

For the last seven years, she was an Associate Research Scientist at Zero to Thrive in the Department of Psychiatry. She evaluated the effects of interventions for young children and families using linear mixed modeling, survival analysis and Bayesian analysis. She has also provided statistical expertise to researchers in the School of Social Work’s Treatment Innovation and Dissemination Research Group.

Shanna K. Kattari, PhD, MEd, CSE (they/them/theirs) is an associate professor at the School of Social Work, in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department (by courtesy), and is the director of the [Sexuality|Relationships|Gender] Research Collective. A white, Jewish, nonbinary, disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent (AuDHD), polyamorous, queer fat Femme, their practice and community background is as a board-certified sexologist, certified sexuality educator and social justice activist.

Erin M. Khang serves as the Director of Field Education and clinical assistant professor at the School of Social Work. She earned her MSSA degree from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.

Edith C. Kieffer, MPH, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, University of Michigan School of Social Work, conducted research addressing health and health care disparities. She has extensive experience planning, conducting and analyzing data from qualitative formative research and intervention research studies in community and health care settings, including randomized clinical trials.

Sherrie A. Kossoudji is presently an associate professor emerita in the School of Social Work and held an adjunct associate professor appointment in the Department of Economics. Her principal research area was immigration. She has written numerous articles on the legal status of immigrant workers in the United States and the incentives to cross the border illegally. Much of her work attempted to discern the link between legal status in the United States and economic outcomes. She has written on wealth disparities for immigrants--in particular, on home ownership as assets for immigrants.