Joint PhD Program

Vincent Fusaro and Janelle Goodwill received the Doctoral Poster Award at the School of Social Work's annual Research Day. Fusaro was awarded for his poster "Children in Immigrant Families & Economic Hardship", and Goodwill for her poster, "How Do Young Black Men Cope with Life Stressors and Mental Health Challenges?" Fusaro's research looked at immigrant family participation in public programs, while Goodwill studied in-group differences in mental and health coping strategies in young Black men.

John Mathias successfully defended his dissertation, "Contentious Ethics: Creativity and Persuasion among Environmental Justice Organizers in South India" and obtained his PhD in Social Work and Anthropology. He has accepted an Assistant Professor of Social Work position with Florida State University.

Lisa O'Donnell, PhD '16, and current UCLA postdoctoral fellow, along with Professor and Associate Dean for Research Joe Himle and Associate Professor Andy Grogan-Kaylor have had their article "Depression and Executive Functioning Deficits Predict Poor Occupational Functioning in a Large Longitudinal Sample with Bipolar Disorder" published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Sara Stein (PhD student) received the Research Grant for Scholarship and Creative Activities Focusing on Women and Gender from the U-M Institute for Research on Women and Gender.

Min Hee Kim, Angie Perone (PhD students) and Professor Ruth Dunkle's article, "Caregiver stressors and depressive symptoms among older husbands and wives in the United States" was published in the Journal of Women and Aging.

Elizabeth Armstrong's (PhD student) letter to the editor about media coverage of the Trump administration, "Media Under Trump" was published in The New Yorker.

Abigail Williams-Butler successfully defended her dissertation "The Role of Relational Permanence in Positive Outcomes among African American Adolescents in Foster Care". She has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship followed by an assistant professorship at Rutgers University School of Social Work. Her committee consisted of Joseph Ryan, Vonnie McLoyd (co-chairs) John Schulenberg, Desmond Patton and Pamela Davis-Kean.

Na Youn Lee successfully defended her dissertation, “Understanding Interracial Closeness, Racial Policy Attitudes, and Children’s Academic Achievement through the Prism of Racial Frameworks” and obtained her PhD in Social Work and Political Science. Professors Andrew Grogan-Kaylor and Kathleen Faller were on her committee. 

Finn Bell and Vincent Fusaro (PhD students) are the co-recipients of the 2016 Henry Meyer Award. Bell's paper, "The Prison within a Prison" and Fusaro's paper, "States and the End of Cash Assistance" made original contributions to empirical or theoretical literature in a manner that integrates social work and social science.

Sara Stein, Abigail Williams-Butler, Analidis Ochoa-Bendana, Oto Alves da Silva, Ronke Olawale, and Joyce Lee (PhD students) received grants, the Bobbe and Jon Bridge Award for Research/Travel to support research expenses and conference travel. The Bobbe and Jon Bridge Award for Engaged Scholarship supports Rackham graduate students who are conducting original research focused on child welfare.