School of Social Work Events Calendar
March 26
Clinical Lecture Series
"Inside Ethics Violations "
Ravita T. Omabu Okafor, LCSW
12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Auditorium
Tate-Turner-Kuralt Bldg.
Chapel Hill
March 31
Clinical Lecture Series
"A New and Exciting Approach to Diagnosis"
Nancy McWilliams, PhD
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Auditorium
Tate-Turner-Kuralt Bldg.
Chapel Hill
April 9
Ethics Workshop for Alumni
"Dialogue on Dilemmas"
Kim Strom-Gottfried, PhD
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Valleybrook Events Ctr.
Greensboro, N.C.
April 17
2007 Public Health
Social Work Conference
Friday Center
Chapel Hill
School of Social Work doctoral student Marcie Fisher-Borne received the 2007 Student Undergraduate Teaching and Staff Award (SUTSA). The award is funded entirely by UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate students who also nominate and select award recipients. Fisher-Borne was one of three instructors out of a pool of 35 nominees to be honored, and she will receive a $5,000 reward for her excellence in undergraduate teaching. Nominees were evaluated on their demonstration of excellence in undergraduate teaching, the creation of a dynamic intellectual environment, and their success in positively affecting a broad range of students both inside and outside of the classroom. Fisher-Borne will receive her award during the Chancellor’s Award ceremony on April 16.Proceedings from the African American Healthy Marriage Initiative Conference on Connecting Marriage Research to Practice, held in September in Chapel Hill, are now available on the Jordan Institute for Families Web site at ssw.unc.edu/jif/aahmi. The site includes abstracts, slide presentations, notes and videos of current research and practice initiatives in this area. The Jordan Institute and the School of Social Work were co-sponsors of the conference.
The Chapel Hill Child Welfare Education Collaborative hosted its annual Law School Event on Feb. 24. More than 100 people participated in the event, which originated in 2001 as a small classroom exercise in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work’s child welfare class, taught by Clinical Assistant Professor Joanne Caye. Currently, the exercise is held at the UNC School of Law.
Faculty, staff and students from several UNC system universities participated in the event in which social work and law students engaged in mock trials, experienced testifying in court, and attended a 90-minute class on courtroom evidence and etiquette taught by attorney Alisa Huffman, Esq.
The educational experience gave social work students, with career aspirations in child welfare, the opportunity to experience a court room environment and to testify on a witness stand, something most child welfare workers eventually experience.
Also participating in the event as acting judge was the Honorable Ann McKown, district judge in Durham County, and attorneys Judith Guibert, Esq. and Sydney Batch, Esq. who consulted with the students.
A presentation by former foster youth, Ashley Brown, concluded the event. Brown spoke to the group about her experiences in the foster care system and about how social workers have impacted her life in significant and positive ways.
School Seeks Alumni Participation in April Career Day
Invitation to Recruit Students and Attend Continuing Education Workshop
The School of Social Work will host its annual Career Day/Job Fair on April 2 from 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. We welcome all potential employers to take advantage of this free opportunity to recruit well-qualified MSW and BSW graduates. Following Career Day, the School has planned an afternoon continuing education workshop for recruiters. The workshop, “Courting Ethics: Legal Precedents and Decisions Involving Ethical Issues,” will be facilitated by Clinical Assistant Professor Joanne Caye. For more information about how to register for Career Day and the continuing education workshop, please visit http://ssw.unc.edu/News/careerday2007.htm or contact Beth Sauer at 919-962-6443 or bhsauer@email.unc.edu.
Florence Soltys received a Village Pride Award from WCHL News Talk 1360 during the radio station’s Hometown Heroes Luncheon on Feb. 25 at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill. The awards program, established in 2003, honors an individual or a group from Orange County, N.C., and surrounding areas on the air each weekday during the year. All daily recipients of the award are honored during an annual awards celebration.
Soltys also received the 2006 Pauli Murray Human Relations Award by the Orange County Human Relations Commission. Soltys received the award on Feb. 25 at a reception held in The Little Theater at the New Hope Elementary School in Chapel Hill.
The Pauli Murray Human Relations Award was established in 1990 to honor Pauli Murray, a distinguished African American who challenged discrimination, racism and sexism throughout her life. During a long career as a lawyer, professor, priest, poet and activist, she continued to spread the spirit of conciliation in human relations. The award is presented each year to an individual who has demonstrated a concern for the rights of all people.
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Charles “Rich” Panther ’00 has opened Insight Associates, LLC, a behavioral health practice, in Waynesville and Whittier, N.C. Panther is also a partner in Workplace Solutions, LLC, which provides organizational services, online staff development training and workshops, and employee assistance programs to organizations in western North Carolina. To learn more about each of these organizations, visit www.insightfullife.com and www.wncemployees.com.
IN MEMORIAM
Vicki Jenkins Peterson ’80, 58, of Greenville, N.C., died Feb. 24 in Pitt County Memorial Hospital. For the past 10 years, Peterson worked as a psychotherapist in private practice and at Tideland Mental Health in Williamston, N.C. Previously, she worked as a teacher and director of field placement for the social work and criminal justice programs at East Carolina University, and she served as the volunteer program coordinator for Adventures Camp, a camp for people with disabilities, held at Camp Trinity in Salter Path, N.C. Peterson is survived by her husband of 26 years, Richard Peterson; daughter, Erin, and her husband, Greg Robinson, of Garner; sons, Mike Peterson of Chapel Hill, Chris Peterson of Greenville, and "adopted son" Alex Williams of Asheville; her mother, Emelyne Jenkins of Greenville; sister, Jenny and her husband, Larry Johnson, of Reidsville; and niece, Elizabeth Campbell of Greensboro. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Adventurers Camp c/o Camp Trinity Scholarship Fund, PO Drawer 380, Salter Path N.C. 28575.
Call for Nominations: Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award
The School is currently accepting nominations for the 2007 award. Please e-mail or mail your nominations to Kristen Huffman at kristen_huffman@unc.edu (CB#3550, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599-3550) by April 1, 2007. Please be sure to include a letter or paragraph about the person you are nominating which explains why you are making the nomination. To qualify, the nominee must be a graduate of the School and meet some of the following criteria:
1. Demonstrate outstanding leadership and make significant contributions to the field of social work.
2. Demonstrate a deep commitment to high ethical social work standards.
3. Develop and/or implement major innovations that have improved the quality of life for members in her/his community.
4. Benefit her/his clients, the professional community and the social work profession through special contributions, advocacy and involvement in professional, civic or community organizations.
5. Be an effective advocate for social work issues.
If you have received an award, promotion, taken a new job, gotten married, added a new member to the family, let us know. We would love to share your news with other alumni and the School of Social Work community. Please e-mail your alumni news to sswalumni@unc.edu.
The School of Social Work has launched a new online job forum for its alumni. If you are looking for a job or have a job opportunity to share, please visit the new forum at: http://ssw.unc.edu/alumni/job_forum.htm. (This forum is also linked from the School of Social Work Alumni Home Page).
12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Clinical Lecture Series
Ravita T. Omabu Okafor, LCSW, will present "Inside Ethics Violations " in the auditorium of the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building on UNC-Chapel Hill's campus. For more information, please visit http://ssw.unc.edu/jif/cls.
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Clinical Lecture Series
Nancy McWilliams, PhD, will present “A New and Exciting Approach to Diagnosis” in the auditorium of the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building on UNC-Chapel Hill's campus. For more information, please visit http://ssw.unc.edu/jif/cls.
2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Ethics Workshop for Alumni
Dr. Kim Strom-Gottfried will give a talk entitled “Dialogue on Dilemmas,” at the Valleybrook Events Center, 5009 High Point Road, Greensboro, N.C. To attend this event, please RSVP by April 9 to Kristen Huffman at kristen_huffman@unc.edu or 919-843-7285.
2007 Public Health Social Work Conference
Entitled “Striking a Balance: Caring for Yourself and Your Clients,” the conference will be held at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill. The UNC School of Social Work is a co-sponsor of this event. For more information, please visit http://www2.sph.unc.edu/oce/email_phsw.htm.