School of Social Work welcomes six incoming doctoral students

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work is pleased to welcome six new doctoral students into its distinguished Ph.D. program. The students arrive in Chapel Hill from different parts of the world, but with a shared passion for combating society’s most challenging issues.

“Every year we get excited when our new Ph.D. students arrive,” Associate Dean for Doctoral Education Mimi Chapman said. “The doctoral program committee and I put a lot of work into considering who should be admitted and then recruiting those admitted students to our School. When we finally get to meet them in person, it is both the culmination of that work and a new beginning as well. We know these students will push us and teach us, just as we will do the same for them.”

Maya Gutman

Gutman earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, where she was a multi-year starter for the women’s soccer program and a mental health advisor in the athletics department. After graduating from UNC-Asheville, Gutman earned her Master of Social Work and Master of Public Health from Boston University. During that time she interned in the Boston Public Schools system, specializing in implementing and assessing mental health education services, and was a policy advocacy and data analyst intern for the Boston Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program. Gutman spent time at Boston University’s Center for Innovation in Social Work and Health to develop communications and marketing materials to help educate the community on the intersection of public health and social work. Gutman’s research interests include the development and implementation of a K–12 mental health curriculum tailored to every community. Gutman will pursue those interests under the guidance of Professor Paul Lanier.

Hana Daher

Daher is an international scholar with more than a decade of experience in the field of social work. While attending college in Brazil, Daher earned a junior research scholarship from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) at the research group of Social Security and Labor at the University of Brasilia. Daher, who earned her master’s degree in social and cultural psychiatry at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, began working for the Government of Brasilia in 2009 as a clinical social worker with a specialty in homelessness services. Three years later she was hired as a consultant for the Brazilian Ministry of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation to help enhance the capacity of more than 5,500 Brazilian cities and villages to administer the Bolsa Familia Program. Daher has lectured at various institutions, including the Catholic University of Brasilia, the University of Coimbra and the University of Brasilia. Since 2022, she’s worked for the research group “Pesquisar SUAS” to develop research about the data system of social assistance in Brasilia. Daher, whose research interests include homelessness, social justice, public policing and mental health for the underprivileged, will work under the guidance of Associate Professor Hsun-Ta Hsu.

David French

French, who earned his bachelor’s degree from Appalachian State University, is very familiar with the School of Social Work after earning his MSW degree from the School in 2024. While at Appalachian State, he interned at the Homestead Recovery Center in Boone, N.C., to provide access to peer support, housing needs to unhoused adults with substance use disorders, and harm reduction supplies. He’s continued his work with unhoused community members in the Triangle area, working as a client advocate in rapid re-housing interventions in Durham and Orange County as well as Union and Watauga County. French’s research interests include substance use disorders, and finding strategies to enhance the availability and accessibility of housing and related educational interventions for unhoused adolescents and adults. French was mentored by Sandra Reeves Spears and John B. Turner Distinguished Professor of Social Work Trenette Clark Goings and Clinical Associate Professor Tauchiana Williams at the INSPIRED Lab for UNC. He will continue under Goings’ guidance while pursuing his doctoral degree.

Lea Efird-Green

Efird-Green is a two-time Carolina graduate who not only earned her bachelor’s degree from the University, but also obtained a Master in Public Administration and MSW degree at UNC. Efird-Green’s research interests include policy and systemic interventions in the field of aging and the long-term care workforce, and intersections among aging, rural and immigrant populations. She is the coordinator at the Center for Excellence in Assisted Living at UNC (CEAL@UNC) and has previously worked at the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute; the ncIMPACT Initiative; the Centro para Familias Hispanas; the city of Raleigh; and the North Carolina Department of Labor. As a research project manager at the UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, Efird-Green has overseen projects related to direct caregiver stress, coping and resilience; reconstructing person-centeredness; accreditation in assisted living communities; and the development of a community-engaged dementia-friendly quality of life measure. Efird-Green is pursuing her Ph.D. under the supervision of Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development Sheryl Zimmerman.

Caroline Harris

Harris earned her bachelor’s degree from Appalachian State University before earning her MSW degree from the School of Social Work in 2019. During her time at the School she was a UNC-Prime Care trainee and received specialized training in implementing behavioral health interventions in integrated care settings. Harris then worked as an inpatient hospice home social worker before moving to Massachusetts. While in the Northeast United States, Harris worked in a geriatric psychiatric unit at a hospital on the North Shore. Later, she received her clinical license and took a position at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston to pursue clinical work and research opportunities in an early-career psychosis clinic for young adults. While at the medical center she was promoted to the role of program director and conducted first-author research on substance use as a correlate of symptom severity and medication adherence in naturalistic psychiatric treatments for psychosis. In addition, she worked with adolescents and teenagers at a private practice. Harris hopes to expand her knowledge of severe mental illness while translating it to the legal system during her time at the School. Harris, whose research interests include understanding the intersection of mental health with the criminal justice system and exploring effective interventions, will work under the guidance of Research Associate Professor Tonya Van Deinse.

Nicollette Violante

Violante comes to Chapel Hill by way of Colorado College, where she earned her bachelor’s degree, and the University of Texas at Austin, where she obtained her MSW. After earning her MSW degree, Violante worked as a bilingual medical social worker at an integrated, federally qualified health center in Central Texas. She also worked as an affiliate faculty at the University of Texas’ medical and social work schools. While practicing, Violante specialized in perinatal mental health, parenting interventions, and in the effectiveness of interdisciplinary health care teams. Violante has multiple certifications, including in parent-child interaction therapy from PCIT International and in perinatal mental health from Postpartum Support International. Her research interests include relational health, strengthening the parent-child relationship, reducing toxic stress, early childhood mental health and perinatal mental health. She’s also interested in interprofessional education in healthcare, social work interventions in pediatric primary care and women’s health, trauma-informed care, health equity, and integrated behavioral health. Violante, who will work under the guidance of Associate Professor Cynthia Fraga Rizo, is a board approved supervisor in Texas.