Faculty

Meghan Thiel, MSW’13, has nearly a decade of experience working in health care, with a focus on end-of-life and palliative care. She has a passion for developing the social work role to the top of its scope and has worked to build educational opportunities and expand the social work role during ...

Rick Barinbaum, MSW is a social worker and teacher with over 15 years of experience working to strengthen vulnerable families and keep them intact. Rick was the Social Work Co-Director at the Center for Family Representation, a legal, social work, and policy organization that advocates for ...

Mercedes Brown (she/her/hers), MSW '08 and JD '13, is an experienced leader with deep expertise in public policy and equitable systems transformation. Throughout her career as a social worker and attorney, Brown has led with her passion for advancing social justice. It is with that commitment ...

Fatima Salman is an MSW from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor with a concentration in Community Organizing and a minor in Management of Human Services. She holds a Bachelor of Science from The University of Michigan- Ann Arbor with double majors in Biology and Arabic. She is the host of ...

Dr. Laura Yakas completed her PhD in anthropology and social work here at the University of Michigan in 2018. Her passion is disability justice (especially the Mad Pride and neurodiversity movements) and its connection to other forms of anti-oppression like intersectional feminism, antiracism ...

Zahraa Boussi, MSW '14, is a licensed school social worker who specializes in students with disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and Emotional Impairment. She is a Certified Trauma Practitioner - Clinical (CTP-C) from Starr Commonwealth. She has extensive experience in providing ...

Rhonda Fields, MSW '12, is a two time alum of the University of Michigan. Fields holds degrees from U-M's School of Education and School of Social Work. Since May 2021, Fields has served as Senior Manager of Corporate Giving: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at General Motors. In this role, she ...

Phillip Luttrell, MSW '16, focuses on individual and group practice with individuals that have co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Luttrell primarily utilizes Motivational Interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. He has a certification in addictions ...

Osvaldo “Ozzie” Rivera MSW ‘87 (U of M) has worked in a number of community based non-profit and arts/cultural entities. He also has held key positions in state government and in college and university settings. His primary focus has been in organizing low-income and communities of color around ...

Andrea Smith has primarily focused on working with adolescents, law enforcement and the justice-involved population. In addition, Smith provides program evaluation and program development services and training on various subjects. She has over 15 years of increasing expertise within the field of ...

Associate Professor Kristin Seefeldt’s primary research interests lie in exploring how low-income individuals understand their situations, particularly around issues related to work and economic well being. Currently, she is conducting research on families’ financial coping strategies and is a ...

My current research interests involve the study of several different predictors of psychological and physical adjustment, including optimism and pessimism, perfectionism, and social problem solving. I am also interested in understanding how cultural and racial factors influence the function of ...

Rebeccah Sokol, PhD, is a behavioral scientist who studies youth trauma exposure. Her overarching research agenda seeks to ease the burden of adversity experienced in childhood and adolescence, with a central focus on reducing youth violence exposure and involvement. Sokol uses a developmental ...

Dr. Kathryn Maguire-Jack's research focuses on child abuse and neglect prevention, with an emphasis on communities and geographic disparities. Her work is funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, the Ohio Department of ...

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 ...

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 ...