by Matthew Smith
A pair of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work researchers were honored Jan. 18 for their achievements during the 2025 Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) 29th annual conference in Seattle, Wash.
Associate professors David Ansong and Rainier Masa were named members of the 2025 Class of SSWR Fellows. Ansong and Masa became the 15th and 16th Tar Heels selected since the program began in 2014.
Fellows requirements
Society for Social Work and Research fellows are members of SSWR who advance the mission of social work. They lead research studies and programs that address the field’s top issues in both practice and policy.

The society calls on fellows to serve as role models and mentors for social work researchers while continuing to lead research programs and initiatives.
“This weekend we get to recognize our colleagues and peers who are doing amazing work,” UNC School of Social Work Dean and SSWR President Ramona Denby-Brinson said. “This is truly an honorific and we recognize this accomplishment for our fellows’ leadership and their contributions to SSWR. They advance the mission for the Society for Social Work and Research.”
Ansong selected
Ansong, a Wallace Kuralt Early Career Distinguished Scholar, is a faculty fellow with the Global Social Development Innovations (GSDI) research center. His research promotes economic security and well-being of children and youth, especially internationally in Africa. His domestic research focuses on testing innovative interventions to bolster the financial capability of relatives who provide permanent care for children in foster care.
Ansong leads the Financial Capability & Asset Building in Africa (FCAB Africa) project, a strategic partnership among university researchers, social workers, financial service providers, policy makers, and donors to increase financial capability and asset holding in marginalized African communities. The program has built numerous partnerships in Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Uganda, Zambia and Malawi.
“Being named a SSWR fellow is a significant recognition of my collaborative research efforts to advance the socioeconomic well-being of all,” Ansong said. “This fellowship will serve as an encouragement to continue my passionate pursuit of supporting evidence-based approaches that improve lives.”
Masa recognized
Masa, who serves as the research director for GSDI and is a L. Richardson Preyer Early Career Scholar, was also named a 2025 SSWR fellow.
Masa’s research centers around the socioeconomic aspects of health in low-resource communities, addressing the intersection of economic security, stigma and HIV among adolescents and young adults. His current research examines how multiple forms of economic insecurity and stigma affect risk for HIV transmission, uptake of HIV prevention services, and progression along the HIV care continuum.
Masa has worked internationally in Zambia and the Galapagos Islands and locally with North Carolina’s Latino communities.
He is currently co-leading the pilot study Kupambana — meaning to overcome — with the University of Zambia’s Joseph Zulu as part of a National Institutes of Health R01 award. The study investigates stigma reduction interventions for young people living with HIV in rural Zambia.
“Being a SSWR fellow elevates the significance of my research and its importance to the field of social work research,” Masa said. “It also demonstrates that social work researchers conducting work in global settings are valued and integral to social work research and SSWR.”
Past SSWR fellows who were inducted while at UNC include Sarah E. “Betsy” Bledsoe (’17), Gary Bowen (’14), Mimi Chapman (’17), Cynthia Fraga Rizo (’22), Ding-Geng Chen (’20), Michal Grinstein-Weiss (’14), Shenyang Guo (’14), Todd Jensen (’23), Paul Lanier (’19), Rebecca Macy (’15), Rebecca Rebbe (’24), Paul Smokowski (’15), Amy Blank Wilson (’24), and Lisa de Saxe Zerden (’22).
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