Skip to main content

Student briefs

Doctoral students

Laurie Graham presented at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with MPH doctoral student Sarah Treves-Kagan on May 4. They were invited to present findings from a project they have been working on this past school year, called “Clarifying Consent: A Nationally Representative Investigation of U.S. Colleges’ and Universities’ Sexual Assault Policies and Consent Definitions.” This study was supported by the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC) and was cited by the CDC as an excellent example of how CDC’s ICRCs are training the next generation of injury prevention professionals.
Jennifer O’Brien was awarded a UNC Dissertation Completion Fellowship. The Fellowship is awarded through the graduate school and is a University-wide award that covers tuition, fees, health insurance, and provides a stipend. This fellowship will allow O’Briend to focus fully on completing her dissertation within the next year. Her dissertation, entitled “Risk Factors, Protective Factors, and Identification Practices for Child Welfare-Involved Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST) Survivors,” seeks to improve the identification of child welfare-involved youth who are at risk for or survivors of initial DMST involvement. This objective will be addressed through mixed methods  interviews with 30 experienced DMST service providers, and 25 DMST survivors who may have been involved in the child-welfare system. Study findings will inform the development of survivor identification protocols for service providers working with DMST-involved youth.
O’Brien was also named the 2016 Outstanding Doctoral Student. Read more about that here.

MSW students

New Advanced Standing MSW Student CharlesChase” Holleman has been named the 2016 Toby Brown Award winner from the National Association of Social Workers North Carolina Chapter (NASW-NC). The award recognizes a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) student in North Carolina who best reflects and represents the ethics, values, and passion in the field of social work through exemplary performance in social work coursework, field placement, student social work associations, and community organizations.
Holleman chose social work as a profession because his mother suffers from late-stage Alzheimer’s disease. He has participated as an Alzheimer’s Association Ambassador since 2013, organizing and facilitating community events, and has met with lawmakers in North Carolina and Washington, D.C., to address Alzheimer’s disease.
Holleman graduated this month with a BSW from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Read the full story from NASW-NC.