School of Social Work News

Assistant Professor Lindsay Bornheimer was an invited faculty speaker at the Albert J. Silverman Conference in the Department of Psychiatry this week. She spoke about her study in a presentation on "Adapting a Cognitive Behavioral Suicide  Prevention Treatment for Adults with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders in Community Mental Health.”

Lecturer Laura Sanders’ work with animal-assisted therapy (AAT) at her farm is featured in Crazy Wisdom Journal. “Instead of vegetables, we produce mental health,” she says.

Sanders describes her approach to AAT and how she uses it to teach relationship-building with social work students.

Professor Matt Smith’s research was cited in the MIT Technology Review on the potential of using virtual reality as a therapeutic tool, specifically for incarcerated individuals. Smith originally developed Molly, a virtual-reality tool for job interview training, for underserved groups. Molly was used in a pilot program with 44 men involved with the justice system. The findings showed that 82% of those who used the tool landed a job within six months of being released, compared with 69% of other program participants.

“Above just the employment rate, those that interviewed with Molly had stronger interview skills over time, greater reductions in interview anxiety over time, and greater increase in motivation to interview over time,” said Smith.

Associate Professor Shanna Kattari is quoted in USA Today on the recent negative attention and laws in the U.S. targeting transgender people. "All of this anti-trans rhetoric is absolutely about power and control, though some people may also hate trans people," says Kattari, "We are seeing the pendulum swing back in response to all the progress towards equity and justice that has been made over the past decade or so."

PhD student Olivia Chang is the recipient of the ResilienceCon 2023 Life Paths Promising Scholars Award. This competitive award is presented to a small number of current students attending ResilienceCon who are conducting high-impact resilience-focused research that focus on under-served or disadvantaged communities.

MSW student Kevin Nguyen has been appointed to the Michigan Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. “As the only student and youngest commissioner to ever serve on MAPAAC, I am humbled and honored to represent the growing APIA population in Michigan.” ENGAGE Program Manager and Lecturer Ayesha Ghazi Edwin serves as chair of the commission.

MSW student Cassandra Kelly has been selected as the 2023 University of Michigan National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Student of the Year. NASW selects students for this honor based on criteria that includes demonstrated leadership qualities, contribution to the positive image of a social work program, commitment to political and community activities, success in academic performance and the student’s representation of the NASW Code of Ethics.

Online Award Ceremony

Friday, April 14, 2023, 6-8 PM

RSVP »

Professor Emeritus John Tropman’s new book, “Fixing Broken Meetings: A Manual on Meeting Rotten-osity, Deleterious Decisions, and Ineffective Implementation,” examines the myriad ways in which meetings regularly fail and how individuals and organizations can produce efficient meetings that lead to effective decision making. The book serves as a resource for courses and programs in business and organizational behavior, as well as for anyone interested in improving the functionality of meetings within their organizations.