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Faculty briefs

Clinical Assistant Professor Travis Albritton has received his Ph.D. in Educational Studies with a Concentration in Cultural Studies, from the UNC-Greensboro School of Education. His dissertation was entitled, “What Does it Mean to be Smart: Black Male Perspectives on School and Academic Achievement.” Dr. Silvia Bettez, of the dissertation committee, commented: “The committee (myself included) was impressed with the data that you were able to collect. You took on the very difficult project of striving to get middle school students, marginalized students who are often skeptical of adults in the system, to open up about their lives and ideas…You uncover contradictions in students’ expressions of who they are, how they perceive themselves, and what they believe that complicates simplistic notions of ‘Black male achievement.'”

Associate Professor Gina Chowa is featured in a NewAmerica video that gives a snapshot of what the YouthSave project has accomplished, “Providing Youth with a Tangible Stake in the Future.” YouthSave, which helped more than 130,000 young people in four developing countries open savings accounts, found that participants reported improvements across four important dimensions: academic performance, financial capability, health, and future orientation.

Assistant Professors Cynthia Fraga Rizo and Paul Lanier and Professor Rebecca Macy gave multiple presentations at the American Professional Society in the Abuse of Children’s 23rd Annual Colloquium in Boston in July. A poster on July 23 was entitled, “Assessing the quality of the parenting interaction among CPS- and court-involved mothers of young children who are intimate partner violence survivors.”  They also gave an oral presentation on “Helping CPS- and Court-Involved Moms Who Are Intimate Partner Violence Survivors with Their Parenting and Mental Health.” Doctoral student Jennifer O’Brien and Phil Redmond from the Duke Endowment contributed to these projects but were unable to attend.

Lanier also moderated a panel presentation, “Aligning policy efforts for collective impact: A panel discussion.”

Clinical Assistant Professor Josh Hinson was awarded a Phase II Capacity Building Grant by the Triangle Community Foundation for the Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative (RMHWI), on July 31. The award will fund a one year project to provide mental health screening and services to refugees in North Carolina in partnership with USCRI, a refugee resettlement agency. It will provide motivational interviewing training for USCRI staff and hiring a mental health coordinator will increase the resettlement agency’s capacity to identify and respond to refugees’ mental health needs, will enhance the collaboration between USCRI and the Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative, and will improve refugees’ health, mental health, housing, employment, and other self-sufficiency indicator outcomes.

Clinical Associate Professor Kirsten Kainz, a new faculty member at the School of Social Work, attended a two-week training on quasi-experimental design and analysis led by Tom Cook and Will Shadish at Northwestern University. She’s looking forward to sharing information with students and faculty. Also, she recently published an article on what it means to be evidence-based for an online education magazine.

Emerita professor Hortense McClinton has been named an NASW Social Work Pioneer, by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Foundation. She will be honored at NASW’s Annual Pioneer Program and Luncheon in October in Washington, D.C. NASW Pioneers are social workers who have explored new territories and built outposts for human services on many frontiers. Each has made an important contribution to the social work profession and to social policies through service, teaching, writing, research, program development, administration or legislation.

Dan Hudgins retires

On Aug. 13, colleagues, family and friends gathered at the School of Social Work to honor faculty member Dan Hudgins on his retirement and celebrate his work. We will miss you, Dan!

Upcoming AHEC presentations by faculty

  • EASTERN AHEC: Sept. 17 – Managing Risk through Ethical Practice – Kim Strom-Gottfried
  • WAKE AHEC: Sept. 18 – Working with Parents with Mental Health Challenges – Lisa Lackmann 
  • CHARLOTTE AHEC: Sept. 24 – The Use and Abuse of Professional Privilege: Moving Toward Socially Just Practice – Laurie Selz-Campbell; Sept. 28 – Suicide in Adults and Children: Prevention, Intervention and Aftermath – Jodi Flick
  • GREENSBORO AHEC: Sept. 30 – DSM-5: What Has Changed and Why? – Marilyn Ghezzi

More information on AHEC programs.

The AHEC 2015 Statewide Conference will be held Sept. 10-11 in Greensboro. Contact Sherry Mergner for more information if you’d like to attend. Erica Richman Carroll, Ph.D. ’13, is presenting in one of the sessions.

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New publications