Hana Staub, a new student in our Advanced Standing MSW Program, died by suicide on May 31. She was 25 years old.
“We do not want to hide this,” her father Jacob said in an article in the Daily Tar Heel. “It has become an epidemic.”
A graduate of Warren Wilson College, Staub was an excellent student and very active on campus. She was awarded the 2008 Summer Policy Fellowship by the National Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors. She also worked with the Homeless Initiative of Asheville and Buncombe County to help reduce and prevent homelessness.
Staub started her master’s program classes on May 10.
Although she was at UNC a short time, faculty member Dan Hudgins remembers her fondly. Hudgins, her field advisor, said Staub wanted to work at Durham CAN, a community-organizing nonprofit, and she was selected to do her internship there. She was “excited about her work, and very focused on issues of social justice,” said Hudgins.
A memorial ceremony was held at Warren Wilson College on June 11. Two of Staub’s UNC classmates attended, and Hudgins spoke about the impact her death had on him and our School.
The School offers its sympathies to the Staub family, and her friends, classmates and instructors.
For information on suicide prevention, faculty member Jodi Flick, who leads a survivors of suicide support group, suggests the following resources:
- American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
- Campus Health Services – provides counseling and assistance to UNC students
