School of Social Work News

Associate Professors Matthew Smith and Rogério Pinto received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop a virtual reality intervention to enhance job interviewing skills for transition-age youth on the autism spectrum.

After the intervention is developed, the project will evaluate the intervention as an addition to school-based transitional services. This initiative builds off of Dr. Smith's prior work using a virtual reality tool to enhance job interviewing skills for adults on the autism spectrum or with severe mental illness.

Associate Professor Shawna Lee’s study, “Transactional family processes supporting father involvement and child socio-emotional wellbeing” received a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to examine transactional processes related to father involvement and child wellbeing in low-income families.

Research shows that low father involvement and/ or absence (LFIA) is associated with negative outcomes for children, such as greater antisocial and behavior problems, lower educational attainment, and poorer mental and physical health. Yet, relatively little is known about the family processes that are associated with and predict LFIA especially in racially diverse low-income families. In these studies, Lee and her team will examine transactional processes related to father involvement and child wellbeing in low-income families. Findings from these studies will help to identify mechanisms relevant to preventative interventions to decrease LFIA and improve child socio-emotional wellbeing in vulnerable families.

Elise Hernandez successfully defended her dissertation, "Familia Matters? Social Support among Older Latina/os in the United States" and obtained her PhD in Social Work and Psychology. Dr. Hernandez has accepted a position as a Research and Analytics Manager with Meals on Wheels America. Her committee consisted of Berit Ingersoll-Dayton and David Cordova.

Dear SSW Community:

I am delighted to announce that Todd Herrenkohl will be joining the U-M School of Social Work in January, 2018. He has been appointed as a Marion Elizabeth Blue Professor of Children and Families. Todd will officially join the School of Social Work at Michigan in January, 2018.  He joins us from the University of Washington School of Social Work in Seattle, WA where he is currently a Professor and Co-Director of the 3DL Partnership 4 – a newly established center focused on innovations in three-dimensional learning. The mission of the center is to raise the profile and practice of social, emotional and intellectual learning to better prepare young people for success in school, work and life. He is also currently serving as the interim associate dean for research, for the School's Office of Research. He has also acted of the Undergraduate Program Director while with the University of Washington School of Social Work.

Todd holds a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from University of Washington, an M.S.W. from Simmons College in Boston, MA and a B.A. in Social Relations from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. Dr. Herrenkohl’s work focuses on the study and promotion of positive youth development and the amelioration of risk factors related to interpersonal violence. His current work includes an extended prospective, longitudinal study on intergenerational patterns of violence within families, developmental consequences, and resilience in adults who were maltreated as children (Lehigh Longitudinal Study).

Todd has received research funding from several sources, including the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, Office of Behavior and Social Sciences Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Justice, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His funded projects and publications examine various health-risk behaviors in children exposed to violence, resilience and protective factors that buffer against early risk exposure in children, and methods and approaches to promoting wellness by investing in the whole child.

His work reflects a strong and unwavering commitment to advancing knowledge for programs and services for vulnerable groups. Trained as a prevention scientist with a commitment to social welfare, he is committed to bridging the gap between research and practice in prevention, including policy. He was recently selected to serve on the Washington State Social Emotional Learning Benchmark Workgroup, a professional group convened by the state legislature and directed by the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to recommend comprehensive benchmarks for developmentally appropriate interpersonal and decision-making knowledge and skills of social and emotional learning for children in kindergarten through high school.

Rewards that Todd has received include: Honorary Professor, Australian Catholic University (2013); Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia (2012); and Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Adolescent Health and Department of Pediatrics, University of Melbourne, Australia (2008).

Before beginning his official duties in January, Todd will visit campus several time during the fall semester.  I hope you will take the opportunity to meet him if you have not already done so.

Please join me in welcoming Todd to the School of Social Work at U of M,

Lynn Videka, Dean
University of Michigan School of Social work

Professor Edie Kieffer received a grant from the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) to work in partnership with the Community Health and Social Services Center (CHASS) in Southwest Detroit to explore how social media and/or text messaging interventions may be used - either alone or in combination with an in-person program - to prevent obesity among Hispanic infants and toddlers.

Professors Linda Chatters, Robert Taylor, and Joe Himle's article, "Discrimination and Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Among African Americans" was published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.

Assistant Professor Mathieu Despard's article, "Effects of a Tax-Time Savings Experiment on Material and Health Care Hardship among Low-Income Filers" was published in the Journal of Poverty. 

Postdoctoral Fellow & LEO Adjunct Lecturer Shanna Kattari's article, "Applying a social model of disability across the life span" was published in the Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment.