Joint PhD Program

Associate Professor Odessa Gonzalez Benson and PhD student Nicolas Juarez’s research is the subject of a Scienmag article on the 2022 Manila Bay Sustainable Development Master Plan. Gonzalez Benson and Juarez examine how the grassroots communities are being given responsibilities that outstrip the power, resources and knowledge they would need to carry them out.

PhD student Irene Routté has been named a Center for Global Health Equity Fellow. She is working with U-M Professor Michele Heisler and her team at Physicians for Human Rights. Routté’s project is titled: “The Impact of Immigration Enforcement Policies and Practices on the Health and Wellbeing of Children and Adolescents: Perspectives of Healthcare, Mental Health and Social Service Professionals.” The fellowship was created to prepare future leaders in global health who can use rigorous research to advance justice and equity through a human rights lens.

PhD student Nicolas Juarez has been selected as a non-resident Boston University Global Health Politics Fellow. Fellows will participate in events throughout the academic year and receive feedback and mentorship on a research paper on global health politics.

Deadline: January 15, 2026
This student-initiated application must be submitted directly to Rackham.

The grant is intended to support Rackham graduate student parents who incur expenses while traveling with small children (under the age of six) while attending conferences, workshops, meetings, or other academic events as part of their scholarly research or in pursuit of professional career readiness both within and outside of academia. Requests may also include dependent care at home while the student is traveling, the cost of transporting the dependent, car seat and crib rental, and daycare

Deadline: January 15, 2026
This student-initiated application must be submitted directly to Rackham.

The Rackham Professional Development Grant is intended to support Rackham doctoral students seeking careers both within and outside academia. This funding is to support short-term experiences that promote the development of professional skills which will further a student’s career goals.

Rackham Professional Development Grant

Brittany Ribeiro Brown, Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Psychology, has successfully defended her dissertation “It’s Nothing to Lose but My Chains: Intersectional Stigma, Mental Health, and Mental Healthcare Among Black Sexual Minority Emerging Adults.” Her committee consisted of Daphne Watkins, Lucretia Ward (co-chairs), Ashley Lacombe-Duncan and Elizabeth Cole. She has accepted a postdoctoral position in the Medical Social Science Department at Northwestern University.

Flourish Fund: Supporting Community Well-Being Initiatives

The Flourish Fund provides small grants to support current MSW students, PhD students, staff and faculty within the School of Social Work who are interested in hosting events or developing projects that advance community-wide well being, with and explicit connection to one or more of the 8 Sectors of Well-Being (emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical social, spiritual).

The fund is designed to financially assist individuals or groups seeking to create positive change through projects, programs, events

Jay Kayser, Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Psychology, defended his dissertation entitled “Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Cognitive Function: Correlates, Consequences, and Causes in Older Adults.” Kayser has accepted an Assistant Professor of Social Work position at the University of Iowa.

E.B. Gross, Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Psychology, defended their dissertation entitled “‘I Have Worked Hard to Be Someone My Child Can Trust’: Perceptions of Parental Support Among Trans and Gender-Expansive Young Adults and their Parents.” Gross has accepted a social work faculty position at Eastern Michigan University.

Charles Williams II, Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Sociology, defended his dissertation entitled “Healing Balm: Black Women, Black Churches, and Du Boisian Pathways to Health Equity.” Williams has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Texas at Arlington.