Skip to main content

School briefs

Associate professor Gary Cuddeback is working closely with the UNC Center for Excellence in Mental Health on a project that aims to address homelessness. The project, which recently was awarded a $2.4 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, focuses on providing comprehensive behavioral healthcare and other services to individuals with serious mental illnesses who are experiencing or at-risk for homelessness. Cuddeback, who also serves as the Center’s director of Community Outcomes Research and Evaluation (COREC), and as an associate professor with UNC Psychiatry, will direct evaluation and data collection for the project. Cuddeback is considered a leading national expert in examining the connection between mental illness and the criminal justice system.

Clinical associate professor Lisa Zerden, Ph.D. graduate Brianna Lombardi and recently retired clinical professor Anne Jones recently served as guest editors for a special issue of the journal Social Work in Health Care. The special issue, titled, Social Workers in Integrated Healthcare: Improving Care Throughout the Life Course, focused on “defining the expanding roles and functions social workers fulfill in integrated health settings, and identifying organizational and system factors that affect social workers’ delivery of interventions in integrated health models.”

Christina Hill-Coillot was recently named the School of Social Work’s deputy director of development. In her new role, Hill-Coillot will be responsible for identifying and cultivating new prospective donors, enhancing the School’s alumni engagement efforts, and expanding its annual fund program. Hill-Coillot joins the advancement team after serving for about a year as the social innovation and entrepreneur manager for the School’s Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab.

“Christina’s background in social work, non-profit management and business makes her a tremendous asset to the team,” said Mary Beth Hernandez, associate dean for advancement.

The School of Social Work’s Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab hosted guest speaker Ronda Taylor Bullock, Ph.D.,  on Jan. 15. Bullock, who earned her doctorate from the UNC School of Education’s Policy, Leadership and School Improvement Program, has research interests in critical race theory, whiteness studies, white children’s racial identity construction, and anti-racism. Her nonprofit, “we are,” which stands for “working to extend anti-racist education,” works to equip children, parents, and educators with the knowledge and skills necessary to understand the complexity of racism. Bullock’s visit was part of the SIE Lab’s new series of discussions on Innovation in Action: Approaching old problems in new ways.