School of Social Work News

The conventional mortgage market is not working in Detroit, writes Professor Trina Shanks in a Detroit Free Press editorial. Shanks and her co-authors recommend new programs to support homebuyer education programs and establish a single-family residential rehabilitation fund. “We know the private mortgage market does not serve Detroit in the same way as it does adjacent communities. The evidence is indisputable,” writes Shanks. The article cites data reviewed by the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being that shows that vast swath of Detroit, identified by neighborhood, see very little mortgage lending activity in relation to residential property sales. “We are in a once in a lifetime moment, where substantive federal investments are flowing into Detroit. Let's focus these infrastructure investments in a way that benefits Detroiters.

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

MSW students Deena Etter, Madeline Loss, Courtney Marsden and Nevo Polonsky have been selected to the Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) Program. Administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the program attracts outstanding graduate students who have a commitment to excellence in leadership and management of public policies and programs.

MSW student Bryant Hepp is part of an interdisciplinary team that has been awarded $60,000 in funding through the Dow Distinguished Awards competition.  The team’s project, “Greening Low-Income, Self-Managed Housing Projects in Brazil,” will implement schematic designs at a designated self-managed housing site. Activities will include planting trees, protecting water springs and creeks, installing educational signage, pathways throughout areas of permanent protection, and construction of communal spaces (pavilions) with pervious surfaces. 

U-M’s Dow Distinguished Awards are designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and engaged learning at the graduate level.

Assistant Professor Sunggeun (Ethan) Park has been elected treasurer of the Society for Social Work and Research. In his vision statement, Park listed the following goals: maintaining fiscal accountability and responsibility; promoting inclusive and transparent fiscal decision-making processes and representing the voices of early-stage scholars with marginalized identities and interests. Park will begin his term on February 1.

Jim Toy, MSW ‘81, has died. Toy’s lifelong LGBTQ+ activism resulted in inclusive policies at the university and legislation at the state and local level.  One of those results is the Spectrum Center, which was the first such university office of its kind. Toy received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from U-M last May.

Read more about Toy's life and impact:

Michigan’s first openly gay man, prominent Ann Arbor LGBTQ activist, dies at 91

A Community in Mourning: Michigan Politicians, LGBTQ+ Orgs Honor Jim Toy’s Activist Legacy

Longtime LGBTQ+ activist Jim Toy, first publicly gay man in Michigan, dies at 91

Gentlest But Most Unshakeable Campaigner’ Jim Toy, Michigan LGBTQ+ Trailblazer and Icon, Dies at 91

Memories and Tributes for Jim Toy

Recordings of Jim Toy

• Transforming Societal Paradigms: Jim Toy at TEDxUofM
• 2021 U-M Commencement
• History of the Spectrum Center
• I am Senior Strong: Jim Toy

Professor Brad Zebrack has received the American Psychosocial Oncology Society’s Ruth McCorkle Excellence in Research Mentorship Award.  The award honors those who have demonstrated a longstanding commitment to nurturing intellectual growth, career development, professional guidance and positive role modeling in the field of psychosocial oncology.

Assistant Professor Fernanda Cross is featured on Deutsche Welle (DW) website. The article explores her journey to the U.S. and her research at U-M School of Social Work. “It is as an immigrant that Cross finds the necessary empathy for her work. As a researcher, she analyzes precisely the insertion of Latin American immigrants in the United States.”