School of Social Work News

Assistant Professor Anao Zhang is a principal investigator on a new project funded by a $250,000 Eugene Washington Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) grant. The Rogel Cancer Center-based research team will work to bring equity to adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer research and outcomes. Professor Brad Zebrack and PhD student Nina Jackson Levin are part of the research team.

“Despite an overall improved five-year survival rate among AYA cancer survivors over the last 20 years, these improvements have not transferred equitably to underrepresented survivors, including people who are Black, Indigenous or other people of color, as well as sexual and gender minorities,” said Zhang.

Assistant Professor Lisa Fedina, Associate Professor Shanna Kattari and Camille Quinn have been named Fellows of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR). SSWR Fellows are members who have served the society’s mission with distinction — to advance, disseminate and translate research that addresses issues of social work practice and policy and promotes a diverse, equitable and just society. Designation as an SSWR Fellow is a high honor and fellows maintain their status as long as they are current members of the society.

PhD student Joonyoung Cho and Assistant Professor Xiaoling Xiang’s research — on how volunteering can help lessen feelings of isolation — was cited in a New York Times article on managing holiday loneliness.

Clinical Assistant Professor Justin Hodge has been unanimously selected to serve as chair of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners. Hodge was reelected in November as the Washtenaw County Commissioner for District 5. “I am committed to doing all I can to make our home a place where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and succeed,” he said.

In an op-ed in The Hill, Professor Luke Shaefer urges Congress to reinstate the expanded Child Tax Credit before the end of this session.  

“Providing supplemental income support to families with children … is the easiest, boldest, and most effective strategy to prevent and reduce child poverty,” writes Schaefer. “It wasn’t just families in poverty who saw these health-supporting benefits. Working class families had less trouble putting food on the table during the months of the expanded Child Tax Credit and more of a financial cushion.”

Professor Rogério M. Pinto discussed his denied bid for tenure at Columbia University in 2014, and the physical, emotional and intellectual toll it took, with The Chronicle of Higher Education.  

“Everybody who is involved with you, either as a professional or someone who is doing research with you or the participants in your research, the people who you love — everybody is affected by it one way or another, and they’re affected very deeply. There’s no way to minimize this. Everything that happens after my tenure denial, every single relationship, every single connection has suffered in some way. It has a domino effect, which is never talked about.”

Pinto joined the U-M School of Social Work in 2015 and was granted tenure the following year. He felt inspired to speak out after reading about Lorgia García Peña’s tenure denial at Harvard University.

Associate Professor Jaclynn Hawkins has received a three-year Innovative Transformational Research to Reduce Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity in Diabetes grant from the American Diabetes Association for her study, “Program AACTIVE (African Americans Coming Together to Increase Vital Exercise): A Combination CBT and Physical Activity Intervention for Black Men with Type 2 Diabetes.”

Professor Matt Smith spoke with Psychiatric News about how virtual reality can support job seekers with serious mental illness. To help patients prepare for a job interview, Smith developed a virtual reality interview training program informally known as Molly (the name of the virtual hiring manager). “Interviewing with Molly is a great representation of how online job interviews are currently playing out, so it could make trainees become even more skilled and confident.”

Earlier this fall, Smith’s findings on Molly was both on the cover story of Psychiatric Services and selected as an Editor’s Choice.