School of Social Work News

Amy Ellwood (MSW'83) was a recent participant at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science Summer Institute at Stony Brook University in NY. The faculty development program teaches faculty from various disciplines in science, social science and journalism to distill information about their research and work so that it is easily understood by the general public.

Christine Sauve (MSW'11) attended the first White House National Convening on Immigrant and Refugee Integration in July. She joined leaders from across the country to put forth recommendations for a national immigrant integration plan.

Assistant Professor David Cordova co-authored a paper, "Developmental trajectories of acculturation: Links with family functioning and mental health in recent-immigrant Hispanic adolescents," which has been accepted for publication in Child Development journal.

Elizabeth Rhodes (PhD student), along with mentor Associate Professor Trina Shanks, received an award from the U-M Rackham Graduate School to conduct fieldwork for her PhD dissertation.

The dissertation aims to determine what factors (e.g. income, ethnicity, political affiliation, community involvement, etc.) affect access to health and education services and satisfaction with the quantity and quality of services utilized.

Assistant Professor Shawna Lee was awarded a grant for her project, “Building Community Capacity to Implement Multilevel Parenting Support for Fathers", funded by the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research's Community University Research Partnership Award.

This project will investigate ways to support fathers' engagement with service providers in the Cody Rouge neighborhood of Detroit.

The U-M School of Social Work (SSW) has received a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration to increase the number of MSW behavioral health workers. This project prepares MSW students to work with impoverished racial and ethnic minority children, adolescents, and transitional age youth living with behavioral health conditions. SSW, in collaboration with the Detroit/Wayne County Mental Health Authority, will provide a specialized inter-professional behavioral health education and training program called the Detroit Clinical Scholar Program to 33 MSW students per year (a total of 99 over three years).

Click here to learn more about the new Detroit Clinical Scholar Program »

Mary Ruffolo was the principal investigator along with colleagues David Córdova, Jorge Delva, Larry Gant, Joe Himle, Edie Kieffer, Sandra Momper, Mike Spencer and Betsy Voshel.

Associate Professor Trina Shanks wrote an article, “The Promise of Child Development Accounts: Current Evidence and Future Directions” for the Summer/Fall 2014 issue of Community Investments, “Rebalancing the American Dream: Forging Pathways to Financial Security”.

Assistant Professor Shawna Lee and Associate Professor Andrew Grogan-Kaylor's research on spanking was cited in the Detroit Free Press, BBC, the Guardian and various sports blogs reporting on the indictment of the Minnesota Viking running back Adrian Peterson on child abuse charges.