Lisa de Saxe Zerden, Ph.D., will serve as the UNC School of Social Work’s director of interprofessional education and practice (IPEP), effective July 1, 2018. She is a clinical associate professor and the senior associate dean for MSW education in the School.
Zerden is one of several school-level IPEP directors who will work with Meg Zomorodi, assistant provost, to establish the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a leader in interprofessional education and collaborative practice. The University’s new Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice will oversee the development of educational programs, research and clinical experiences that will enhance collaborative learning across the participating schools, including business, dentistry, education, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health, in addition to social work.
Currently, Zerden chairs the MSW curriculum committee and has already worked closely with Zomorodi and others to design and implement an interprofessional population health management course for the University. She directs the School’s UNC-PrimeCare program, which was created to prepare MSW students to work in primary care settings as behavioral health providers. More than 115 students have been trained through the UNC-PrimeCare program and its interprofessional field sites.
With this new appointment, Zerden will also serve on the steering committee for the Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice.
“Dr. Zerden is the perfect faculty member to serve in this capacity,” Dean Gary Bowen said. “She is highly regarded in the social work community of scholars and on this campus as an expert in interprofessional education and practice.
“I am very pleased that she has agreed to serve in this new position,” he added. “She will provide critical leadership within our School to expand the scope of our efforts in interprofessional education and practice.”
