Faculty News

Assistant Professor Shanna Kattari is a Woodhull Freedom Foundation 2022 Vicki Sexual Freedom Award Honoree. The award recognizes those individuals whose life and work embody the foundation’s mission and values, and who have made landmark contributions to the sexual freedom movement through education, advocacy, research and activism.

Kattari will receive the award in August 2022 at the Sexual Freedom Summit. “As someone who has been doing sexuality education and advocacy work for the better part of two decades, I am so honored that my work is being recognized in this way,” said Kattari. “We still have far to go to ensure that all disabled people, queer and trans people, people of color, older adults, kinky folks, those who are non-monogamous and sex workers are treated with justice in the realm of sexuality, basic human rights and access. I hope my work brings more attention to many of these topics, and encourages social workers to understand that affirming sexuality is an important part of our practice.”

Associate Professor Terri Friedline and Professor William Elliott spoke with the Guardian about the benefits of children’s savings accounts, which extend beyond saving money for college.  Research shows that these accounts positively affect the social emotional development of kids and encourages families to build other assets. “It’s not because they’re getting money in their hands, it’s more about understanding their kids have a better future,” said Elliott. “What assets give you is tangible hope.”

Associate Professor Terri Friedline was invited to share her research on overdraft fees with the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. Friedline is part of a nationwide movement to eliminate overdraft fees which are excessive, predatory, and punish lower-income people for not having enough money in the bank.

Assistant Professor Ashley Cureton has been named a 2022 Public Engagement Faculty Fellow by the U-M Center for Academic Innovation. The cohort of 14 fellows will participate in an intensive program designed to build engagement skills, understand key public-engagement concepts and reflect together on how public engagement fits into their scholarly identities.

"This program will help me to reflect on how public engagement fits into my scholarly identity. I am committed to considering the breadth of ways that my research creates public impact, from designing exhibits to working with policymakers to conducting community-engaged research projects to develop interventions and programs and to amplify the voices of refugee populations in the U.S. and abroad," said Cureton.

Youth Engagement through Cannabis Prevention and Employment Training

Faculty Member: Associate Professor Cristina Bares

Community Partner: Kartav Patel, Manager of Youth Services, Southwest Economic Services

Welcome to the Motor City: Exploring Refugee Resettlement Among Afghan Refugees and Beyond

Faculty Member: Assistant Professor Ashley Cureton

Community Partner:  Shadin Adityeh, Director of Employment and Economic Empowerment Programs, Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County and Detroit

Tuxedo Project Community Map

Faculty Member: Lecturer Maureen Okasinski

Community Partner: Rose Gorman, Executive Director, The Tuxedo Project

Enacting Action Goals Informed by HOMES Survey: Services and Options for LGBTQ+ Older Adults in Metro Detroit

Faculty Member: Associate Professor Beth Glover Reed

Partner: Angela Gabridge, Executive Director, Sage Metro Detroit

Linda Chatters co-edited Volume 41 of the Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics: Black Older Adults in the Era of Black Lives Matter. Katrina Ellis, James Ellis, and Robert Joseph Taylor contributed book chapters. The book represents an important moment in the development and maturation of research and scholarship on Black older adults that builds on the many contributions of prior generations of eminent African American gerontologists.

Associate Dean for Research and Innovation and Professor of Social Work Rogério Meireles Pinto has been appointed the Berit Ingersoll-Dayton Collegiate Professor of Social Work. Pinto’s community-based participatory research aims to improve access to social work and public health services, particularly those services at the intersection of health and well-being. He examines how transdisciplinary collaboration and practitioners’ involvement in research improves the delivery of evidence-based services. He also studies factors that influence ethnic and sexual minority women’s involvement in research and health care.

Seven U-M SSW faculty are included on Stanford University’s 2021 World's Top 2% Scientists list. The database provides standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship-adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions, and a composite indicator.

• Linda Chatters
• Lorraine Gutiérrez
• Todd Herrenkohl
• Joseph Ryan
• Robert Taylor
• Richard Tolman
• Bradley Zebrack