School of Social Work News

Associate Professor Kristin Seefeldt gave the keynote address at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work’s symposium “Poverty is a Human Rights Issue: Social Work and Economic Justice". Her talk focused on poverty and inequality, economic well being and family coping strategies.

Assistant Professor Shanna Kattari and Postdoctoral Research Fellow Ashley Lacombe-Duncan talk about their studies on transgender experiences with health professionals on Michigan Minds. They discuss their goal of creating easily accessible information for healthcare providers to help better care for transgender patients.

Rogério Meireles Pinto was invited to lead a training at The Guidance Center/Detroit Wayne Mental Health Authority on best practices for clinical staff working with a client and interpreter during the course of mental health treatment. Pinto's training was part of the Children's Mental Health Lecture Series.

Mitch Paradise, MSW'19 was awarded the 2019 University of Michigan NASW Student of the Year. The award selection is based on the following criteria:

• Demonstrated leadership qualities
• Contribution to the positive image of a social work program
• Commitment to political and community activities
• Success in academic performance
• Degree to which the student represents the professional ethics of social work as defined in the NASW Code of Ethics

Min Hee Kim successfully defended her dissertation “Geographic Distribution of Aging and Health-Related Resources in Urban Neighborhoods: Implications for Health Care Delivery to Community-Dwelling Older Adults with Physical and/or Cognitive Impairment.” Her committee consisted of Ruth Dunkle, Sarah Burgard (co-chairs), Sandra Levitsky and Philippa Clarke.

Professor William Elliott’s research on child savings accounts is featured in the San Francisco Chronicle. “Children with a bank account designated for college, with $500 or less, were three to four times more likely to go to college than those without an account”, Elliott said.

John Doering-White successfully defended his dissertation entitled "In the Shadow of the Beast: Violence and Dignity along the Central American Migrant Trail".  His committee consisted of Laura Lein, Jason DeLeon (co-chairs), Andrew Shryock, Reuben Miller and Jorge Delva. He has accepted an Assistant Professor of Social Work position at the University of South Carolina, with a joint appointment in the Department of Anthropology.

Brian Perron presented, "Innovating administrative research through data science: Lessons learned from the U-M SSW Data Lab” at Tsinghua University in China. He also gave a workshop on "Writing and Publication Strategies in Social Work" hosted by the Tianjin University of Technology.