By Chris Hilburn-Trenkle
(Photo courtesy Jafar Fallahi/Jafar Fallahi Photography)
Months after celebrating their graduation with a pre-commencement reception, doctoral graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work are getting ready to embark on their next journey.
The five Ph.D. students, three of whom graduated in May and two of whom will graduate in August, while focused on different areas of research, are connected in their passion for social work and helping the most vulnerable members of society.
“We are so proud of all that our doctoral graduates have accomplished,” Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson said. “Each has already made significant contributions to our profession in their own unique ways. This group of new colleagues represents a lot of what excites me about the future of academia. We must continue to invest in producing values-driven scholars who are enthusiastic about science and translating research discoveries into community and practice policies that will improve conditions for so many.”
“Our graduates are engaged in such innovative and important work that can change people’s lives and shape the future of social work research and education,” said Vice Dean Robert Hawkins. “I welcome them as colleagues and look forward to them taking into the world and building on what they have learned at UNC Social Work.”
Below you can find information about each graduate’s area of study, accolades and next steps.
Stefani Baca-Atlas (graduated in May 2024)
An academic career that started more than 2,000 miles away led Baca-Atlas to Carolina a decade later. Baca-Atlas graduated with her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Arizona State in 2010, then earned her Master of Social Work from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 2014 before arriving at the School of Social Work in the fall of 2016.
Baca-Atlas’ research interests – structural racism and health inequities – helped form the basis for her three-paper dissertation titled “Exploring Structural Racism as a Determinant of Violence Against Women.” She examined the role of structural racism for women who experienced sexual violence or intimate partner violence with a primary focus on Black, Indigenous and women of color (BIPOC), using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. She used that data to develop a latent class analysis.
A recipient of multiple honors during her time at the School, Baca-Atlas also served on the Society for Social Work and Research Doctoral Student Committee from 2020–22 and is a Mental Health First Aid Trainer.
Baca-Atlas will continue to focus her work on inequities in health and on structural racism, with a goal of developing multi-level interventions that benefit the needs of BIPOC-facing inequities.
“The UNC at Chapel Hill School of Social Work offered me unparalleled opportunities to work with influential researchers who conduct impactful research with real-world implications,” Baca-Atlas said. “Moreover, faculty are happy to share their expertise, provide research opportunities, and create space to learn new skills. I have great respect for faculty who center marginalized voices, and I was fortunate that my dissertation committee provided countless examples of prioritizing the needs and interests of the communities they serve. The University and SSW are constantly growing and improving, and I am confident that I will carry lessons learned with me throughout my career.”
Hayden Dawes (graduated in May 2024)
Dawes earned his bachelor’s degree in voice and opera from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro before pursuing a career in social work. After earning his MSW from North Carolina State University, Dawes arrived at the School with clinical practice experience that included work with addiction treatment and mental health.
Dawes used that expertise to focus his research on multiple specializations, including the impacts of racism in mental health and health care and the social well-being and mental health for LGBTQ people of color. His dissertation, titled “Liberating Ourselves with Radical Permission: A Mixed-Methods Intervention Study of People in Digital Community,” involved an analysis of more than 800 tweets using a Radical Permission call — an invitational daily practice of offering oneself “permission” to express oneself — that he created in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests. Dawes used his radical permission form to create an online mental health forum for queer young adults and found evidence that his interventions helped improve various aspects of their mental health.
Dawes received various awards and fellowship opportunities during his time at the School, earned the Outstanding Doctoral Student Award for 2023-24 and served on the executive council for the American Academy of Psychotherapists.
Dawes accepted a position at Bryn Mawr College as an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.
Alexandria Forte (graduated in May 2024)
The recipient of the 2022-23 Outstanding Doctoral Student of the Year award, Forte was celebrated by her peers for advocating on behalf of her fellow doctoral students to ensure they received all the support they needed.
A graduate of the University of Villanova, Forte received her MSW from the University of Denver before arriving at Carolina in the fall of 2019. During her time at the School, she’s focused her research on social justice and nutrition for Black families, as well as the importance of detecting food insecurity among adolescents and children.
Her dissertation, titled “Defining food security and exploring its association with mental health among Black adolescents,” used a mixed-methods analysis to identify differences in adult-reported food insecurity status for adolescents and children, the impact of food security on youth mental health, and ramifications for bolstering the assessment of food security experiences for adolescents and children.
Forte’s honors included the Cornell University Feeding America Research Fellowship, and she was part of the UNC Graduate School’s Royster Society of Fellows, a premier doctoral fellowship program at Carolina.
Forte will join the University of Connecticut School of Social Work as an assistant professor in August 2024.
Sarah Godoy (graduated in August 2024)
Godoy, who along with Dawes received the 2023–24 Outstanding Doctoral Student Award, earned her undergraduate and MSW degrees in California.
After graduating from the University of California, Riverside, Godoy earned her MSW from the University of California, Los Angeles. Godoy’s time at UCLA included work as a research associate in UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and as a lecturer in the school’s department of social welfare.
Godoy’s research is focused on young adults and youth affected by commercial sexual exploitation in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, as well as their intersection with technology, health care and social services. Godoy drew on her research to write her dissertation, “Exploring Sexual Exploitation Initiated During Preadolescence in the United States,” which included a qualitative investigation of the lived experiences of individuals who experienced commercial sexual exploitation before 10 years old, as well as a systematic review and a latent class analysis examining family characteristics for adolescents involved in risky sexual behavior.
In addition to earning the outstanding doctoral student of the year award, Godoy was a member of the Royster Society of Fellows.
Upon graduating in August, Godoy is joining NYU Silver School of Social Work as a tenure track assistant professor.
Claire McNellan (graduated in August 2024)
McNellan graduated from Colorado College in 2014 before heading to the northwest to the University of Washington. After earning her Master of Public Health there in 2017, she spent three years working for the National Court Appointed Special Advocate and Guardian Ad Litem Association for Children.
McNellan, who arrived in Chapel Hill in 2020, continued to concentrate her focus on protecting children while pursuing her Ph.D. In addition to her work with the Children’s Data Network, McNellan studied child- and family-serving systems, maternal/child health disparities and state responses to maltreatment in children. Her research expertise helped her in writing her dissertation, “When is Maltreatment Confirmed? Using Unsupervised Machine Learning to Advance Understanding of Substantiated Child Maltreatment Report Dispositions.”
A recipient of a prestigious doctoral merit assistantship and fellowship, McNellan was also awarded with a research award from the Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy, Research, and Training (2021–23) at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.
“The School of Social Work gave me the support and training needed to succeed not only in the world of academic social work but in any related, social justice-oriented field,” McNellan said. “As I start a tenure track assistant professor position in public health, I am confident that the training I received at the School of Social Work has prepared me to do rigorous interdisciplinary research with important implications for practice, policy, and population health—and to acquire the necessary funding to do this research. Moreover, my training will shape how I think, write, and translate my research to diverse audiences.”
McNellan, set to graduate in August, is joining the University of Colorado School of Public Health as a tenure track assistant professor.
“Having watched these graduates as they have moved through their Ph.D. program, I can say that they are all bringing a lot to their new positions,” said Associate Dean for Doctoral Education Mimi Chapman. “As a doctoral program, we are so proud of them and happy that they have landed in places that they each very much wanted to be. I look forward to seeing the impact they will make as future leaders in social work education and research. And, personally, I’ll miss having them around.”
