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School briefs

Clinical associate professor Tamara Norris was appointed a Fellow of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC. FPG Fellows engage in scholarly activities related to the mission of FPG and collaborate with FPG research scientists and TA/implementation specialists.

Faculty members Kim Strom-Gottfried, Rebecca Macy, and Todd Jensen and Ph.D. ’17 graduate Chris Wretman recently presented at the European Association of Schools of Social Work (EASSW) Conference in Paris at Descartes University. Strom-Gottfried presented a poster with Jensen on “Appraising Competency-Based Student Evaluation Strategies.” In addition, she presented a workshop on “Ethics for Educators” with colleagues from Bosnia, Italy, Slovenia, Finland and Scotland, and she led a presentation on “Ethics as the First Lecture.” Macy and Wretman presented “Social Work Education and Technology: A Synthesis of the Evidence and Recommendations for the Future.”

The School’s innovative work in intervention research was internationally recognized in June when Jack Richman and Mark Fraser were invited to give keynote addresses at the International Conference on Intervention Research in Shanghai, China. Richman, the School’s associate dean of international programs, spoke on “Considering Intervention Research: Beginning the Process of Building Social Work Practice Knowledge” and Fraser, the Tate Distinguished Professor, followed up with “Advances in Intervention Research: Cultural Adaptation of Existing Programs and Pilot Testing Using Bayesian Methods.” After the two-day conference, Richman and Fraser led a workshop for 25 social work faculty from all across China. The workshop, which focused on the process for designing new programs, engaged the Chinese professors in a social/health problem exercise aimed at teaching them how to develop their own innovative interventions. The workshop attendees will meet again in October and December to further develop their programs and will continue to receive support and advice from UNC faculty.

Monique Tuset, MSW ’15, recently joined the School as the coordinator of student affairs, in the Office of Academic and Student Affairs. Previously, Monique worked in student services at Durham Technical Community College, and she also worked as a college advisor with the Carolina College Advising Corps. As an MSW student, Monique served as a student ambassador and as a research assistant. She also served as a minority advisor for UNC Student Advising and Counseling.

Welcome Monique!

Marty Weems was promoted to clinical associate professor.

Clinical assistant professor Michael McGuire and clinical associate professor Marty Weems were selected to attend the Alcohol and Other Drugs Education Program (ADEP) funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The fellowship program, which was held at Boston University in late June, is designed to train social work faculty and educate social work graduate students in empirically-supported alcohol and other drug (AOD) identification and treatment methods. The program also aims to incorporate AOD content into the curricula of schools of social work nationwide. McGuire, director of the Substance Use and Addictions Specialty Program (SUAS), said the experience showed him that our School is “blazing the trail for effectively educating and equipping our social work students for working in the field of addictions.” He added that regardless of a student’s area of specialty, all “need to better understand that as social workers, our efforts cannot avoid intersecting with the individual, family, community, and worldwide consequences of addiction and substance use.”

MSW student Julia Da Silva and UNC Center for Urban and Regional Studies Faculty Fellow Maureen Berner recently presented on food insecurity at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management International Conference in Brussels.