School of Social Work News

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. 

Preventing all forms of sexual and gender-based misconduct is a top priority for the University of Michigan. Associate Professor and U-M Ombudsman Robert Ortega, "We all have an important role in creating a culture and climate of respect at U-M, and there is help available." Watch the video to learn more.

Associate Research Scientist Roland Zullo comments on GM strike with Time Magazine. GM union members have joined a national uptick in strikes, with Americans increasingly turning to collective action in the face of unstable employment practices. “In a healthy labor relations context, there’s that understanding that when times are tough, everybody sacrifices. But when times improve, everybody shares, right?” Zullo says.

Luke Shaefer, Professor of Social Work and director of Poverty Solutions, and his co-authors study on material hardships among seniors and children was cited in a recent Washington Post article. Shaefer said about their study "“one of the major takeaways is how incredibly important Social Security is in the retirement security of low- and moderate-income households.”

Garrett Pace, Joint PhD student, discusses the harmful effects of spanking with American University Radio. “Our findings suggest that spanking seems to be harmful on a global scale,” says lead author Pace.

Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work, Karla Goldman, was quoted in the article "200 years ago, John Adams promoted a Jewish state in the Holy Land" in The Times of Israel.  The article explains how the reasoning behind President Trump’s support of a Jewish homeland differs sharply from that of the second president, John Adams.