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Alumni briefs: Adelson ’07, Bohland ’98, Geffner ’02, Haithcock ’79, Johnson ’81, Krauss ’11, Pfledderer ’12, Taboada ’12, Williams ’96

Rachel Adelson, a 2007 graduate of the Multidisciplinary Certificate in Aging, announces her new book, Staying Power: Age-Proof Your Home for Comfort, Safety and Style (Sage Tree Publishing, 2013).

Paula Bohland, MSW ’98, was named executive director of the Center for Faith & the Arts, in Salisbury, N.C. Full story

Isabel Geffner, MSW ’02, and School of Social Work Board of Advisors member, has been named executive director of the Behavioral Science & Policy Association, part of a new center formed in partnership with Duke University and UCLA and housed at the Social Science Research Institute.

Sammy Haithcock, MSW ’79, received a 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award at the North Carolina Association of County Directors of Social Services’ (NCACDSS) Annual Banquet, held in New Bern, N.C. Haithcock is a retired director from Durham County who has contributed over 33 years to local county DSS in Caldwell, Chatham and Vance Counties. Larry Johnson,  MSW ’81, was awarded Director of the Year. Johnson has served as the Rockingham County social services director for approximately 13 years and is a prominent NCACDSS member. He was recently named as Rockingham County’s Health and Human Services director.

Erin Krauss, MSW ’11, was awarded the Garcia-Robles Fulbright and will be conducting a project in Chiapas, Mexico during the academic year of 2013-14. Her project is entitled, “Comparative Social Work Practice: From North Carolina to Southern Mexico.” This project is a cross-cultural immersion experience aimed to fine-tune professional language proficiency, enhance skills for working across culture, and to understand social work practice in southern Mexico. The institution she will be working with is the leading social work school in Chiapas, Escuela Superior de Trabajo Social “Jesús Aquino Juan”.

Laura Pfledderer, MSW ’12, was recently accepted to the Air Force. She leaves for commissioned officer training at the end of June, and will be stationed in the D.C. area in August.

Arianna Taboada, MSW/MPH ’12, is featured in the April 2013 UNC Center for AIDS Research newsletter, profiling her work as the project coordinator of  the “Sex Ed Squad,” which teaches teens through theatre. The UNC Sex Ed Squad is part of a project that is piloting the AMP! intervention in three school district sites — Chapel Hill/Carrboro, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. AMP! is a theater-based HIV prevention and sexual health education intervention that was developed at the UCLA Art & Global Health Center in collaboration with the Los Angeles Unified School District HIV/AIDS Prevention Unit.

Dr. Sha-Lai Williams, MSW ’96, has received her Ph.D. (2013) from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University. She has accepted a position in the School of Social Work at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.