School of Social Work News

The School of Social Work Alumni Board of Governors is accepting nominations for the Distinguished Alumni Award. The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes School of Social Work alumni whose achievements exemplify the values of the School of Social Work and who have made an exceptional impact on the profession, the community and/or Social Work education. Nominations are due September 5, 2014.

Assistant professor Reuben Miller was selected as a 2014-15 Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research scholar. His project is a qualitative longitudinal study comparing the experiences of 54 older and younger formerly incarcerated men transitioning from prison back into their home communities in Detroit.

Assistant professor Reuben Miller was selected as a Junior Fellow of the Yale Urban Ethnography Project.

LEO Lecturer Tony Alvarez received the 2014 Michael Stratton Practitioners Award from the Association for Experiential Education.

Associate professor Brad Zebrack was cited in a Chicago Tribune article, “After childhood cancer, young women's sexual health may suffer”.

Associate Professor Joseph Himle and co-investigators Deb Bybee (MSU professor), Amy Kilbourne (U-M Psychiatry) and Amiram Vinokur (U-M Institute for Social Research) received a National Institute of Mental Health-RO1 grant for "Multi-site systems intervention for unemployed persons with social anxiety".  

The team will conduct a multi-site trial of a cognitive-behavioral intervention for enhancing employment success among unemployed persons whose job attainment efforts have been undermined by social anxiety disorder. The project has two sites - one in Detroit partnering with Jewish Vocational Services and one in Los Angeles. The community partners include Jewish Vocational Service in Detroit led by Ed Steinberger, Zipora Golenberg and Wayne Laviolette.  The second site at UCLA is led by Michelle Craske.

Several members of the Curtis Center Treatment Innovation and Dissemination Lab including Sarah Vlnka, project coordinator, Lisa O'Donnell, SSW Joint program student, Addie Weaver, Curtis Center research investigator, Debra Levine, U-M clinical psychology recent graduate, Brandy Sinco, Curtis Center data analyst and Peter Felsman, SSW Joint program student supported the grant application.  

Associate professor Leslie Hollingsworth was selected as one of two winners for the SAGE/Council on Social Work Education Innovative Teaching Award.

Assistant professor Desmond Patton was cited in a MLive article, “From Facebook to the streets: How social media is fueling youth violence in Kalamazoo”; he also interviewed with the Kalamazoo Gazette regarding the shooting.