Jessica Burroughs, MSW/MPH ’98, through her volunteer advocacy work with MomsRising, is the key point person who planned a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration for children and families. She was featured on local television show My Carolina Today.
Bobby Cagle, MSW ’98, is the commissioner of Georgia’s State Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL). Georgia is one of six states recently awarded funding through the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge, a $280 million state-level competitive grant administered by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to improve early learning and development. Georgia was awarded $51.7 million to be used over a four-year period, the highest amount awarded among the six grants. Governor Nathan Deal designated DECAL as the lead agency and applicant for the grant on behalf of the state. The grant includes a variety of projects, all of which focus on improving services to Georgia’s children from birth to age five and their families. “With these funds, Georgia will invest heavily in expansion of Quality Rated (the state’s system for continuous quality improvement in programs), in investing in professional education and development opportunities for early childhood educators, in creating innovation zones for rapid improvements in targeted high-need communities, and in expanding our ability to use data to facilitate a better understanding of the state’s early education successes, challenges, and need for additional services. This is indeed an exciting chance for Georgia to build on past successes to expand the horizons for all of our children,” said Cagle.
Devon Corpus, MSW ’01, is helping organize this year’s Crisis Intervention Team International Annual Conference, to be held Oct. 13-15 in Monterey, Calif. CIT is a collaboration between law enforcement and behavioral health to help mentally ill consumers get the appropriate help that they need when in a crisis situation. It began in Memphis, Tenn., in 1988 as a joint effort between the Memphis police department and NAMI. They are anticipating around 1,200 attendees with 100 different workshops to choose from. Workshops range from interacting with veterans and PTSD, to excited delirium and everything in between. Any social worker or law enforcement officer, consumer and family member is welcome to attend. Corpus is the crisis team supervisor with the Monterey County Behavioral Health Bureau.
Deanna Davis, MSW ’13, recently began a new position as the program counselor for Upward Bound at UNC-Chapel Hill. In this role, she will focus on holistic development in the youth they serve, providing students counseling in personal, career, and academic areas as well as referral services. Davis brings a vast amount of experience, having served with the Guilford County Department of Social Services, the UNC Center for Student Success and Academic Counseling, and the Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate Program through Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. “Being headquartered at the University, I am looking forward to the opportunity to give back to my beloved UNC, and also work collaboratively with families, students, and organizations in our surrounding communities,” said Davis.
Kim Petrilli-Parker, MSW ’05, was recently named the new executive director of the March of Dimes, Austin, Texas branch.
Susannah Walker-Richmond, MSW ’12, got married in October 2012 and moved to Canada with her husband, who is originally from Saskatchewan. She is working in Regina, Saskatchewan, as the director of programs at North Central Family Centre, working with the Native community of North Central Regina. She is also an adjunct instructor at First Nations University, where she taught Indigenous Social Work 200 last fall.