School of Social Work News

October 24–27, 2019
Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel
Denver, CO

• Map & Directions
• Event Details & Program
• U-M School of Social Work Presenters
• Michigan Graduate Programs in Social Work Joint Reception

Associate Professor Terri Friedline was appointed by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathleen L. Kraninger to the Academic Research Council. Friedline’s important research on fair banking and financial practices will impact the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the nation.

“The Bureau is able to protect consumers in the financial marketplace better when it receives input from a wide range of experts and stakeholders,” said Kraninger. “I am confident these groups will be able to hit the ground running in their efforts to provide meaningful feedback on Bureau policy and regulations.”

"I am honored to receive this appointment and to serve and protect consumers by advising the Bureau's research agenda. I look forward to working alongside the Director and fellow council members," Friedline said.

Professor Emerita Edie Kieffer’s latest research “Diagnosis and Care of Chronic Health Conditions Among Medicaid Expansion Enrollees: A Mixed-Methods Observational Study, was included in a front page Washington Post story. The study finds people with chronic conditions are significantly more likely to report improved physical and mental health since enrolling in the Healthy Michigan Plan, the state’s expanded Medicaid program. Ann-Marie Rosland, now an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, is the first author of the study. Originally published in published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the research has also inspired an article on U-M’s Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation (IHPI) website. Kieffer has been a member of IHPI’s Healthy Michigan Plan evaluation team since its beginning in 2014.

Kieffer led the qualitative interview component of the evaluation and is also survey team member. “This was a mixed methods study, which uses both survey and interview data, and integrates the results” she explains. She was responsible for analyzing the interview data and integrating key interview themes and quotations with the survey results in the manuscript. 

“Why do we include interview data?  It is used as part of the evaluation because personal stories are important,” says Kieffer. “Policymakers are often most moved by the stories – these bring the numbers alive.  The interviewees told truly important stories about the impact of having the Healthy Michigan Plan on getting diagnosed, getting needed care to help them to manage their conditions, and on the functional impact on their lives.”   

Clinical Associate Professor Julie Ribaudo has been invited by the Erikson Institute and the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) to serve on the Infancy and Early Childhood Mental Health Steering Committee. The steering committee is comprised of social work and other discipline experts who will work to develop the Curricular Guide for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and Developmental Neuroscience.  The guides are accessible to CSWE program and individual members for free and can be found at the CSWE website. 

Shawna Lee, associate professor of social work, was appointed the director of the Program Evaluation Group, known as PEG, effective September 2019. Lee will bring her extensive knowledge and experience to the Program Evaluation Group. PEG’s mission is to provide professional evaluation services to a broad range of partners, including community-based organizations, social service providers, and university-based entities. PEG’s professional evaluation staff also train social work students in evaluation practice. PEG has a strong presence in Detroit and statewide, and has ongoing projects with collaborators such as the Kresge Foundation and the United Neighborhood Initiative.

Lee joined the School in 2012. She completed the Joint PhD Program in Social Work and Psychology at the University of Michigan, where she was a National Institutes of Health (NIH) predoctoral trainee in prevention research. She was a postdoctoral research scholar at the Columbia University School of Social Work.

Lee founded the Parenting in Context Research Lab whose research and community-based intervention work focuses on the role of fathers in promoting child and family wellbeing. She leads the design, implementation and evaluation of an intervention for low-income fathers in collaboration with Healthy Start home visitation program sites throughout Michigan. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the Michigan Health Endowment Fund, and the Fatherhood Research Practice Network. Lee teaches courses in research methods, program evaluation and social policy.

Lee is on the editorial board of Child Maltreatment and Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal. She was named a 2017 Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Fellow.

Debra Mattison, Clinical Assistant Professor, is a member of the U-M IPE Foundations Experience Team that received the 2019 Demonstration Model Award at the Midwest Interprofessional Practice, Education, and Research Center (MIPERC) annual conference in Grand Rapids. Frank Ascione of the Center for IPE nominated the 10-member team, which is led by Laura Smith of UM-Flint, in part for "innovative solutions to teaching IPE principles to our large and diverse group of health science students."

Associate Professor Emerita Diane Kaplan Vinokur’s new book “Shared Space and the New Nonprofit Workplace” has won the 2019 Terry McAdam Book Award from The Alliance for Nonprofit Management.  “Particularly at this moment when many nonprofits face significant fiscal challenges, we found it to be a hopeful and practical template for collaboration and strengthening the nonprofit sector,” noted the award committee.