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Alumni briefs: Bauman ’08, Cagle ’98, Corpus ’01, Murphy-Erby ’91, Polich ’09, Thompson ’12

Kathryn (Katie) Smith Bauman, MSW ’08, was selected as the North Carolina 2013 CIT Healthcare Professional of the Year. She received the award at the first annual CIT Awards Luncheon, part of North Carolina’s 2013 CIT Conference, “Promoting Resilience in the Face of Crisis,” on Feb. 19, 2013. In other news, she and her husband are expecting their first child, a boy, in early April.

Bobby Cagle MSW ’98, was featured in an NPR news story on Feb. 14, “Georgia to Show Off Preschool Successes.” Cagle is the commissioner of Georgia’s State Department of Early Care and Learning. President Obama visited a preschool in Decatur, Ga., that day to tout his proposal for universal preschool.

Devon Corpus, MSW ’01, Monterey County (Calif.) Behavioral Health Crisis Team Supervisor, received the prestigious ICISF Award (International Critical Incident Stress Foundation), presented at the ICISF 12th World Congress on Stress, Trauma and Coping, held in Baltimore, Md., on Feb. 23. Corpus has devoted her personal and professional life to the mental well-being of Monterey County Emergency Services Personnel. She has forged an unwavering one of a kind collaboration between her team of behavior health professionals and law enforcement, specifically with the Salinas Police Department. The Salinas Police Department has developed a unique professional relationship with her, which is based on credibility and trust. Full story

Corpus was featured in The Californian on Feb. 11, in an article entitled, “Helping first responders cope.”

Dr. Yvette Murphy-Erby, MSW ’91, director of the University of Arkansas School of Social Work in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, has been selected to receive the 2013 Health and Human Sciences Pacesetter Award. The award is granted by the University of North Carolina, Greensboro Department of Human Development and Family Studies, where she earned a doctorate in 2004.

The Pacesetter Award is given each year to one outstanding alumnus from each department and program in the UNC Greensboro School of Health and Human Sciences. Recipients are chosen based on attaining local, state or regional recognition through their achievements in scholarship, leadership or service during their career or through civic involvement. The award will be presented during a ceremony at the UNC-Greensboro campus April 13.

Joe Polich, MSW ’09, been named a postdoctoral research fellow at the UNC School of Law.

Aaron Thompson, Ph.D. ’12, is now an assistant professor at the University of Missouri School of Social Work, in Columbia, Mo. His research interests focus on the education system in the U.S. and how it can help break cycles of poverty and dependence when mental and behavioral services are provided to students in a full-service delivery model. His initial teaching responsibility at Missouri includes evaluative research in clinical social work practice.