School of Social Work News

Professor Emerita Lorraine Guitérrez received the inaugural Maria B. Cerdas Trailblazer Award at the Latino Social Workers Organization’s National Latinx Social Work Conference in Chicago last week; she was also the keynote speaker. The award is named after Cerdas who became the first Latina member of the Chicago Board of Education in the 1960s.

Clinical Assistant Professor Ayesha Ghazi Edwin spoke with CBS Detroit about a new “right to sit” ordinance she introduced in her role as Ann Arbor City Council Member. MSW student Jessica Riley’s participation in the public comments is included as part of the story. The ordinance was approved in October.

Additional media coverage:

• MLive

Professor Shawna Lee’s research on how fathers are connecting with their children — despite economic hardship and negative stereotypes — has been cited in an article on Tech Explorist. Lee and her co-authors call for these positive experiences to be reflected in the media and for health care providers to support father-inclusive practices.

Professor William Elliott III spoke with San Francisco’s KQED about how children’s savings accounts can provide hope and change perspectives. “You are giving families access to an institution that allows them to build wealth that’s coupled with a change in attitude and reflecting on what’s now achievable for them,” Elliott said.

Associate Professor Xiaoling Xiang is the principal investigator of a recently-funded federal grant from the Administration for Community Living’s National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research.  The three-year study will focus on evaluating the real-world effects of the Empower@Home program on social participation among older adults with disabilities. Empower@Home is an online self-help program for depression based on the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy. 

“I am thrilled to build on the momentum of our recent NIH R01 award to further expand Empower@Home’s community impact,” said Xiang. “Our goal is to extend its reach to older adults with disabilities and broaden its focus beyond a single condition to encompass outcomes like social participation and connections. This brings us closer to achieving our mission of promoting the multi-dimensional aspects of healthy aging.”

Assistant Professor Fernanda Cross spoke with WXYZ Detroit about how her own experience as an immigrant inspired the creation of the Latinx Youth Empowerment Series, also known as YES, which connects immigrant students at Ypsilanti Community High School with mental health services.  

“Immigrating is difficult. The children are having to do a lot of the navigating the new culture. They’re navigating the new language for the parents as they are learning the language themselves,” Cross said. “For the adolescents that come from undocumented parents, there’s always this constant fear of getting separated from the family, having one of the caregivers deported or being deported themselves in case the adolescents,” she said.  “These students were very likely never going to see a provider if it had not been for these groups.”

YES has been so successful that the Michigan Health Endowment Foundation is funding six additional groups over the next two years.

Clinical Associate Professor Ayesha Ghazi Edwin was featured in a PBS News story on the importance of voting to new U.S. citizens. Ghazi Edwin was born in England; her family came to the U.S. when she was three. Her mother says that the day their family received their U.S. citizenship was one of the happiest days of her life.

“People always say representation is important, and I have too. But I didn’t actually realize the truth of the statement until today,” Ghazi Edwin said. “Having an Asian American in the highest level of office does feel like empowerment and protection, because right now we’re playing a system and a game that has been run by people who don’t look like me.”

Professor William Elliott III spoke with the Washington Post for an article about the new Brilliant Futures program, a child savings account program for two cohorts of students in Prince George’s County in Maryland.  

Elliott discussed how college savings programs can give participants long-term hope.  “Oftentimes when we think about poverty, we only think about the starving kid who can’t eat, not understanding that the additional problem and very significant problem with being poor is that you don’t think you have a future,” he said.