Students News

PhD student Joonyoung Cho has been named a 2024 Grand Challenges Doctoral Fellow. His project “Contact Frequency with Children Following Relocation Later in Life: Do Contact Modes and Proximity to a Child Matter?” addresses the Grand Challenge to Eradicate Social Isolation. These fellowships work to broaden the pipeline of social workers equipped for and committed to tackling and surmounting the Grand Challenges. PhD student Rita Hu received an honorable mention for her project “The Role of Social Relationships in The Internalization and Consequence of Self-Perceptions of Aging Across the Life Span.”

MSW student Kevin Nguyen has been appointed as an inaugural member of Michigan’s new LGBTQ+ Commission. Created by an executive order from Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the commission is responsible for reviewing, developing, and recommending policies focused on preventing discrimination against LGBTQ+ Michiganders. Nguyen also serves as a member of the Michigan Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission.

PhD student So’Phelia Morrow has been named a 2023 Public Voices Fellow on Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls. The US-based fellowship is part of The OpEd Project’s Public Voices initiative to include women’s voices in writing history and Equality Now’s mission to create a fair and just world for women and girls. During the year-long program, participants receive mentorship to effectively communicate their ideas and learn how to work with media outlets.

PhD student Yanghyun Park presented at the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children conference last month. Her presentation was titled “Strategies for increasing economic support in child maltreatment prevention.”

PhD student Olivia Chang received an honorable mention from the 2023 Ford Foundation Fellowship Program. The programs seek to increase the diversity of the nation's college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

Briana Starks, Joint PhD in Social Work and Sociology, successfully defended her dissertation, "Diapers, Debt, and Degrees: The Practical and Theoretical Implications of Maternal Postnatal Educational Attainment." Her committee included Kristin Seefeldt (co-chair) and Karen Staller.

Starks has accepted a position as a Human Services Researcher at Mathematica.

MSW student Peter Slutzker has been appointed to Ann Arbor’s Housing and Human Services Advisory Board. “I'm honored to receive this appointment on behalf of the mayor’s office,” said Slutzker. “I'm hopeful that, as a community member-at-large, I can provide insights from my years providing supportive housing and case management services to members of historically marginalized communities, in both urban and rural settings, to improve conditions and service provisions for Ann Arbor residents. I'm looking forward to the experience of working and learning alongside the knowledgeable members of the board.”

Nina Jackson Levin, Joint PhD in Social Work and Anthropology, successfully defended her dissertation, "Meta/Static Ethnography of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncofertility Research and Practice at a United States Hospital: Implications for Sexual and Gender Minorities.” Her committee included Bradley J. Zebrack (co-chair) and Shanna Katz Kattari.

Jackson Levin plans to complete a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan Department of Endocrinology.