825 N University Ave
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Important Information
The School of Social Work Summer Commencement for Master of Social Work students will be held in person at Hill Auditorium and livestreamed on the SSW website. Hill Auditorium doors will open for guests and graduates beginning at 12 Noon.
A light reception will be held at the U-M School of Social Work in the Lower Level Atrium immediately following commencement.
Specific instructions and information will be added to this page as commencement approaches. In the meantime, view the School of Social Work Commencement Guide for general commencement information.
Speakers
Keynote Speaker Ashley Cureton
Ashley Cureton is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work and the Marsal Family School of Education at the University of Michigan. She has previously served as a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow and lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. Earlier in her career, she worked as a research associate at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research and served as a research fellow for the U.S. Department of State in Turkey, where she worked directly with Iraqi and Syrian refugee youth in school and community settings.
As a forced migration and international social work scholar, Cureton uses community-based participatory research to design culturally specific programs that improve educational, environmental, and socio-emotional outcomes for refugee and migrant youth. Her extensive fieldwork spans over a dozen global contexts, including Uganda, Zambia, Turkey and India. She earned her PhD from the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago and holds graduate certificates from Harvard University, the University of Oxford, and Northwestern University. An accomplished author, she has published research in top journals such as The Lancet, Journal of Adolescent Research, and Urban Education, and her work is funded by major institutions, including the UNHCR and SAMHSA.
She has received numerous prestigious honors for her leadership and teaching. She was named a 2025 Emerging Scholar by Diverse Issues in Higher Education, received the University of Chicago’s Elizabeth Butler (Alumni) Award for academic excellence within 10 years of graduating, and received multiple honors from U-M, including the 2022 Teacher of the Year Award. She serves on the Council on Social Work Education’s Council on Global Social Issues. A member of the Travelers’ Century Club since she has visited, lived, and worked in over 100 countries and all seven continents. She is currently finalizing an academic memoir analyzing her international travels through an intersectional lens as a Black woman.