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School briefs

Ph.D. candidate Todd Jensen was recently selected for the Student Writing Award from the Southeastern Council on Family Relations (SECFR). Jensen, who was recognized for the award at the 2017 SECFR Conference in Charlotte, was tapped for his paper, “Constellations of Dyadic Relationship Quality in Stepfamilies: A Factor Mixture Model.” Jensen received $100 for the award and was invited to present his research during the conference. The SECFR provides a network for collaboration among family professionals and a platform to mentor future family professionals; creates a voice to promote programs and policies beneficial for families; and provides a forum for the dissemination of family research.

Ph.D. candidate Shiyou Wu recently had a co-authored paper, “Is social work really being recognized? Problems with social work employment opportunities in Mainland China,” selected as the Best Empirical article of 2016 for Social Work Education: The International Journal.

Former School of Social Work faculty member Hortense McClinton was among UNC’s academic and athletic leaders recently honored as African American pioneers during a Black History Month tribute co-sponsored by the Carolina Black Caucus and the UNC Women’s Basketball Team. McClinton, was the first African American professor hired in 1966 by North Carolina, at the School of Social Work. She was also the first African American professional social worker to be employed in several public, private and governmental social agencies, including the Durham County Department of Social Services and the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Durham. Other honorees included Karen L. Parker, the first African American woman undergraduate to attend the UNC-Chapel Hill; Kathy Crawford, Henrietta Walls and Deanna Thomas–Carolina’s first African American female scholarship athletes– and Rochelle Small, the first African American woman to play varsity basketball for the Tar Heels.

Nearly three dozen social work students and faculty members were among nearly 600 who participated on March 1 in the NC-NASW Social Work Advocacy Day in Raleigh. The event aims to further social workers’ knowledge about policy issues in substantive areas of social work practice, teach participants about legislative advocacy, and provide an opportunity for social workers to educate their legislators about the social work profession and important client issues. This year’s advocacy sessions were held at the N.C. Museum of History and included a presentation from Gene Nichol, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Boyd Tinsley Distinguished Professor of Law, who spoke about poverty and public policy in North Carolina. The day also offered participants the chance to speak one-on-one with lawmakers about various issues. This year’s session focused on two topics: raising the age for which youth are tried as adults from 16 to 18 years old and repealing HB2. The so-called bathroom bill nullified local nondiscrimination ordinances and requires transgender individuals to use the restroom that corresponds to the gender on their birth certificate while they are in schools and other government facilities.