E-Contact Newsletter: November
Remembering Jack Tate, School of Social Work building namesake
John A. “Jack” Tate, founding member of the School of Social Work’s Board of Advisors, Charlotte businessman and longtime social justice advocate, died Oct. 14 after a brief illness. He was 91.
Tate, a retired banking executive and former chairman of UNC’s Board of Trustees, is remembered fondly for his visionary leadership and guidance, helping the School to attain academic prominence.
“Jack was a great friend of the School of Social Work and his passing is a significant loss,” said Dean Jack Richman. “He provided leadership and support to our School during a time of significant growth.”
Mark Fraser, John A. Tate Distinguished Professor for Children in Need, concurs. "Jack [Tate] gave money for my chaired professorship, he helped secure our building by working with state legislators, he chaired our Board, he advocated for children, he funded many innovative projects, he was an advocate for social work, he was a critic of social policies, he was a scholar gentleman, and he was a great mentor to many faculty," said Fraser.
Tate’s efforts to enlighten others on the significant contributions of social workers extended to the state capital where he spent years lobbying lawmakers for $10 million to construct a new School. A new five-story brick building on Pittsboro Street in Chapel Hill opened in 1996, bearing the names Tate-Turner-Kuralt in honor of the men who provided unwavering support.
A tribute to Tate will be included in the upcoming issue of Contact magazine.
John A. Tate Distinguished Lecture to be held Nov.10
As part of the Distinguished Lecture Series that honors Jack Tate, the School presents Kristen Shook Slack, Ph.D., associate professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work. Slack's presentation is entitled "Preventing Child Maltreatment with Income Support." She will discuss reforms of child protective services systems (CPS) to enhance the continuum of interventions for families at risk for maltreatment, and specify clearer roles for CPS and public assistance systems in the context of the current economic safety net.
The lecture will be held on Mon., Nov. 10 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Tate-Turner-Kuralt building auditorium. Parking is available after 5:00 p.m., next door at the FedEx Global Education building's underground parking deck. Flyer
Students create blogs to share experiences, aid recruitment
What's a blog, you ask? Short for "weblog," a blog is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs are defined by their format: a series of entries posted to a single page in reverse-chronological order.
As part of our new Web site, our student ambassadors have created blogs specifically as a recruitment tool to help communicate the student-life experience to people interested in our School. Check out our students' personal insights on the blog page.
Free assistance for local nonprofits
Local nonprofit organizations can receive free organizational and financial health assessments from UNC-Chapel Hill graduate students enrolled in two different classes taught by School of Social Work Clinical Assistant Professor Mat Despard, that are part of the inter-disciplinary Nonprofit Leadership Certificate program. These assessments will help organizations review their financial health and examine key practices such as board development and fundraising.
For more information, contact Mat Despard at 962-6467 or despard@email.unc.edu.
School holds Diversity Open House
On Oct. 7, the School welcomed 92 students and faculty from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the state for our annual Diversity Open House. This event was co-sponsored by the National Association of Social Workers-North Carolina Chapter.
The Diversity Open House gives us the opportunity to invite students and faculty from HBCUs to explore our MSW program, and think about UNC-Chapel Hill as a viable option for graduate education in the field of social work. Activities for the day included faculty presentations on social work careers, class visits, lunch with faculty and current students, a GRE workshop, and a faculty roundtable discussion.
Clinical Lecture Series
Nov. 17 - The Crucial Role of Psychotherapy in Treating SPMI Adults: Creating New Narratives. Speaker: Marilyn Ghezzi, MSW, LCSW. Jan. 26 - Depression and Suicide in Children and Adolescents. Speaker: Jodi Flick, MSW, LCSW. Details & register
Know someone who may be interested in enrolling in our MSW program?
For more information on the events listed below, contact Sharon Thomas, Director of Recruitment, Admissions and Financial Aid at (919) 962-4367 or sholmes@email.unc.edu.
- Information sessions at the School of Social Work will be held on Nov. 7, Nov. 21 and Dec. 5.
- Thomas and Travis Albritton, director of our Triangle Distance Education MSW Program, will visit Warren County on Nov. 19 to meet with DSS and Health Department employees about our program.
- The School will have a booth at the NASW-NC fall conference, Nov. 20-22.
Betsy Bledsoe gave two presentations in October: "Introduction to Brief, Culturally Relevant Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) for Depression with Low-income Mothers," a training for Children's Health Involving Parents in Richmond, Va.; and "Basic Introduction to Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) for Depression," a workshop at the Southern Area Health Education Center in Fayetteville.
Gary L. Bowen, Kenan Distinguished Professor, received $227,825 in funding from the United States Marine Corps to support the implementation of the Building Corps Families (BCF) Web site. Working with Michael Kelly, President, Flying Bridge Technologies, Inc., Bowen will implement support and resiliency assessment tools for use by Marine Corps Family Team Building staff at all Marine Corps bases worldwide, train program staff in the use of these tools for intervention and prevention planning, develop online training modules, and provide on-going practice support to program staff. The structure of the Marine Corps assessment tools builds on Bowen and Jack Richman’s highly successful School Success Profile, of which Flying Bridge Technologies is also a key partner. Katherine Spinney and Elizabeth Marks, MSW students, will assist Bowen on the project.
On October 25, Bowen delivered the keynote address at the California Association of School Social Workers & California NASW School Social Work Council’s Annual Conference, Bridges to Change: Connecting Practice to Theory & Research. Held at the Oakland Convention Center in Oakland, Calif., Bowen discussed the “Science and Practice of School-Based Interventions.”
Bowen delivered the 2008 Gerald Seabury Memorial Lecture at the University of California at Berkeley on Oct. 27. An endowed lecture, his presentation was entitled “Conceptualizing Social Problems to Inform Assessment and Intervention Planning.”
Bowen delivered the keynote address at the 18th Annual Building Strong Families Conference on Oct. 9. Sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Council on Family Relations and held at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., the conference focused on "Responding to Families in Trauma." His presentation was entitled “Military Family Resiliency and Community Capacity Building in the Shadows of War: Implications for Policy and Practice.”
Michal Grinstein-Weiss was awarded a $38,260 grant from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to design an evaluation plan for the next phase of the Assets for Independence Program evaluation (AFI). The Assets for Independence (AFI) Program, authorized by the Assets for Independence Act (1998), provides the largest source of funding for IDAs in the U.S. Between FY1998 and FY2006, the AFI program has provided nearly $121 million in grant funds to support 398 AFI projects, which have helped nearly 50,000 individuals to open IDAs.
Grinstein-Weiss is leading the UNC team and collaborating with a team of researchers from the Urban Institute and the Center for Social Development on this project. Building on the recent evaluation of the AFI program, this project will focus on some of the outcomes that the recent evaluation was unable to address, including the long-term outcomes for AFI participants; the civic, psychological, and social effects of savings; and the costs and benefits of the AFI program.
Shenyang Guo and Mark Fraser's book "Propensity Score Analysis: Statistical Methods and Applications" has been accepted for publication by Sage Publications in its "Advanced Quantitative Techniques in the Social Sciences Series." Propensity Score Analysis describes a family of new statistical techniques that are quite useful in estimating the effects of social and health programs. Written in an accessible fashion, the book is intended for social behavioral researchers who conduct intervention research and program evaluation. It is the first of its kind to provide step-by-step instructions for running a wide range of propensity score models with the Stata software program. The book describes four cutting-edge methods: sample selection models, propensity score matching, matching estimators, and kernel-based matching estimators.
Amelia Roberts-Lewis has been awarded a 5-year, $2 million SAMHSA grant to provide evidence-based practices to Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers (TROSA). This new program, Triangle Network To Engage Homeless Individuals With Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders (Triangle Engage), will strengthen TROSA's treatment services for homeless adults with a substance use disorder or co-occurring substance use and mental health disorder living in North Carolina, by adding three evidence-based practices to include a CBT model, SAMHSA's co-occurring disorders model, and a relapse prevention model.
The primary goals of Triangle Engage are to: (1) ensure comprehensive service delivery to the target population; 2) improve mental health outcomes; (3) increase retention rates; (4) prevent relapse; (5) reduce recidivism, and 6) facilitate long-term recovery and stability. Internal and external barriers, which hinder engagement, will be targeted.
Susan Mann, MSW '87, recently started a new position in the Community Transition Program at North Carolina's newest psychiatric facility, Central Regional Hospital.
Mark D. Sullivan, MSW '02, executive director of the Mental Health Association in Orange County, received the J.B. Spillman Award at the Mental Health Association of North Carolina's annual conference in September. The following are remarks of John Tote, Executive Director of the Mental Health Association of N.C.
"The J.B. Spillman Award is given to an MHA executive director who represents the highest ideals of his or her position within the community. All of our nominees this year were deserving of this award, but one individual's tireless leadership stood out as he strengthened and inspired his community. This year's winner has provided unprecedented leadership for his organization. He continues to guide the growth of his MHA affiliate, including a budget that has tripled under his direction. His motivation to be involved in programs, community initiatives, and legislative matters has inspired his staff and board members to do the same. He serves his community as a voice for mental health and consistently provides innovative solutions for the issues that non-profit organizations so often face. As his nomination states, he is the 'definition of a dynamic leader'."
MSW '98 reunion planned
Class of '98 -- mark your calendars for Sat., Nov. 15 for a reunion starting at noon in the Tate-Turner-Kuralt building. There will be a catered lunch and an opportunity to catch up with friends, faculty and staff. Registration deadline is Wed., Nov. 12 and the cost is $15 for adults 13 and older and $5 for children 4-12. To RSVP, contact Kristen Huffman.
Update: This event has been canceled.
New alumni job board
The alumni job board has moved to the School's new Web site, and the previous listserv-based board has been discontinued. Have a job to post? Please use the e-mail link on the job board page.
Editor: Michelle Rogers, Director of Communications
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