School of Social Work News

Clinical Professor Julie Ribaudo was elected to a four-year term on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH), a nonprofit organization for scientific and educational professionals. WAIMH's central aim is to promote the mental well-being and healthy development of infants worldwide, taking into account cultural, regional and environmental variations, and to generate and disseminate scientific knowledge.

Associate Professor M. Candace Christensen has been named a Public Engagement Faculty Fellow by the U-M Office of the Vice President for Research.  The fellowship offers an opportunity for faculty members to consider how they can prioritize outward engagement in their scholarly activity and translate it into meaningful public impacts.

“My vision for who I want to be as a professional scholar in 5-10 years is to be exceptionally proficient at translating my own research, but also a guide, mentor, and leader for translating research into accessible, engaging, practical, and useful knowledge,” said Christensen. “The Public Engagement Faculty Fellowship will provide me with the mentorship, social networks, skills, and resources to achieve these goals.”

Six School of Social Work Professors have been selected to serve as cluster co-chairs for the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Annual Conference. Cluster chairs play a significant role in the abstract review and development of the abstract-based program content for the SSWR annual conference.

Associate Professor Lindsay Bornheimer — Mental Health cluster

Assistant Professor James Ellis — Black and African Diaspora Focused-Research cluster

Assistant Professor Odessa Gonzalez Benson — Race and Ethnicity cluster

Associate Professor Shanna Kattari — Gender cluster

Associate Professor Kathryn Maguire-Jack — Inequality, Poverty, and Social Welfare Policy cluster

Associate Professor Camille Quinn — Black and African Diaspora Focused-Research cluster

MSW students Claudia Abboud and Cora Galpern spoke with PBS’s NewsHour about the option to vote “uncommitted” in last week’s state primary election. “I don’t think we have a whole lot of ways to really make sure that our voices are being heard,” Abboud said. “But this is one direct way that we can, that we have some power we can leverage, that we can do something and communicate what our wants and our needs are directly to the source.”

Research Fellow Greer Hamilton, PhD ’23, has been selected as an Agent of Change Fellow. Sponsored by the Environmental Health News and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the program is designed to empower emerging leaders from historically excluded backgrounds in science and academia to reimagine solutions for a just and healthy planet.

Associate Professor Shanna Kattari spoke with USA Today about polyamory, the changing attitudes towards monogamy and increased interest in different relationship styles. "The more that even monogamous people are willing to learn and educate themselves about polyamory, the better it is for everyone," said Kattari.

The School of Social Work student group Black Radical Healing Pathways (BRHP) received a 2024 Central Campus MLK Spirit Award. MSW students Kareem Isaac, Rhianna Womack, Ataia Templeton and Kyra Smith accepted the award on behalf of BRHP; they would also like to credit alumni Joseph “Jojo” Pearson-Green, MSW ’23, and Syncere Ellis, MSW ’23, who were on the leadership team last semester.

BRHP aspires to organize, educate, mobilize and empower Black students to work for transformative changes on campus, neighborhood and communities. Their focus is to nourish and cultivate the fighting spirits, critical consciousness and aesthetics of Black students.

The Central Campus Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Spirit Award program honors undergraduates, graduate students, and student groups on Central Campus who best exemplify the leadership and extraordinary vision of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Associate Professor Shanna Katari spoke with NPR’s Marketplace about job discrimination and the role it plays in the higher rates of economic hardship that transgendered people face in the U.S. “So it might not be something as explicit as ‘I’m not hiring you because you’re trans,’ but ‘I’m not hiring you because you don’t match my idea of what a woman should look like,’” they said.