School of Social Work News

Assistant Professor Odessa Gonzalez Benson has received the 2024 Doctoral Student Organization Faculty Award. The Doctoral Student Organization bestows this award to a faculty mentor who has demonstrated exceptional commitment to mentoring, developing and supporting doctoral students.

Professor Daphne Watkins is the principal investigator in a new R01 research grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute titled “Addressing Structural Racism in Heart Failure Care and Outcomes: A Mixed Methods Evaluation of The Social Structure of Care Delivery.” The goal of the project is to develop a comprehensive understanding of structural barriers as well as facilitators for equitable care and outcomes, and to develop a best practices toolkit to address structural racism and discrimination in heart failure care. 

"Addressing racism and discrimination at the structural level is essential if we want to move toward health equity in heart failure care and outcomes,” said Watkins.  “I am excited to be a part of such a dynamic team of researchers and clinicians who want to understand and improve heart failure delivery networks within the social structure of care delivery. In the long term, our goal is to advance equitable care and outcomes for patients.”

Associate Professor Shanna Kattari’s book “Exploring Sexuality and Disability: A Guide for Human Service Professionals,” has received the  American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists 2024 Book Award (Sexuality Professional Focus).

Chapter editors include Lecturers Jax Kynn, Erin Martinez and Laura Yakas; and PhD students E.B. Gross, Nicolas Juarez and Kari Sherwood.

Assistant Professor Ashley Cureton has received the 2024 Lester Monts Award from the U-M Center for Educational Outreach. The Lester Monts Award is a distinguished honor for faculty and staff who have collaborated with our team and contributed exceptionally to advancing educational outreach on campus and beyond. Cureton was selected for her inspiring commitment to initiatives including the Michigan Pre-College and Youth Conference, and Raise Scholars; the development of new collaborations with school partners; and her service and significant contributions in the field of social work.

Clinical Associate Professor Daicia Price is quoted in a Crain’s Detroit article on the challenges in creating specialized units to respond to mental health emergency calls. The Detroit Police Department, which created a mental health unit at the end of 2022, received over 16,000 calls last year that involved someone in mental distress — or more than 43 calls per day. That unit has grown to 22 officers, three sergeants, a lieutenant and six behavioral health specialists. But finding social workers and psychologist to work in these units is a challenge. Michigan is facing a shortage of mental health professonals and, as Price noted, these community programs simply can’t compete with private practice. 

“We were providing training to co-responders, and they went out in the field and found out it wasn’t suitable,” Price said. “They can go into private practice or the private sector and make $30,000 more with half the responsibilities. How do we train behavioral health individuals to be in these settings and make sure they deliver that public service and compensated the way they should when they can sit in an office with people with milder disorders and make more money?”

Assistant Professor Katie Schultz is a principal investigator on a recently awarded R01 grant, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This longitudinal, mixed methods study will examine changes in the social networks of American Indian youth across adolescence and collect community-level social network data to identify optimal timing and strategies for culturally grounded prevention of substance use, suicide and exposure to violence at the micro (individual) and macro (community) levels.  

“I’m excited to continue this work with my colleagues and our community partners to build upon findings from our previous work, the Tribal Adolescent Connections Study,” said Schultz. “This new study will further our understanding of how social networks, a salient feature of American Indian culture, might operate and be harnessed in culturally grounded, preventive interventions.”

Assistant Professor Odessa Gonzalez Benson has joined the editorial board of Social Service Review. The journal publishes original research on social issues, social welfare policy and social work practice. Established in 1927, it is the oldest continually published social welfare journal in the U.S.

Rita Hu has successfully defended her dissertation, “The Role of Social Relationships in the Development and Consequences of Self-Perceptions of Aging across the Lifespan.” Her committee included Lydia Li (co-chair) and Ruth Dunkle. 

Hu has accepted a Provost's Postdoctoral Fellowship and will transition to a tenure-track assistant professor position in 2026 at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice, University of Chicago.