Skip to main content

Alumni briefs: Crouse, MSW ’17; Kranbuehl MSW ’17; Sanford, MSW ’72; Tompkins, MSW ’14; Despard, ’15; Hart, MSW ’13; Ehle, MSW ’17

Victoria Crouse, MSW ’17, recently published a policy brief with the N.C. Justice Center on “The Impact of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in the Tarheel State.” Crouse, who is a state policy fellow with the Michigan League for Public Policy, wrote the policy brief based on her research from a project she completed last year in the School of Social Work’s 810 class, “Evaluation of Social Interventions.”

Karen Kranbuehl, MSW ’17, was recently featured for her work in addiction recovery in an article in the quarterly newsletter of the North Carolina Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. Kranbuehl is the founder and chief executive officer of Say It Solutions, an intervention she developed that teaches self-advocacy skills to individuals in recovery.

Clifford W. Sanford Jr., MSW ’72, and former director of Group Child Care Consultant Services, died on July 27. He is survived by his wife Anne Leah Sanford of Burlington.

Julia Grace Tompkins, MSW ’14, is employed as a care manager with UNC Internal Medicine.

Mat Despard, Ph.D. ’15, was honored at the Network for Social Work Management’s 28th Annual Management Conference in New York City in June with the 2017 Slavin-Patti Award for Outstanding Article of the Year from the Human Services Organizations: Management, Leadership, and Governance journal, which is published by Taylor and Francis Group.
Despard’s research project with colleague Terri Friedline (University of Kansas), “Mapping Financial Opportunity,” was also selected to receive a 2017 Association of Public Data Users Data Viz Award in the Researchers and Students category. The project was a joint effort with New America in Washington, DC. Despard and Friedline’s research brief, “Can Post Offices Increase Access to Financial Services?” was cited in MarketWatch financial news.

In addition, Despard and colleagues at the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis recently received grants from the JP Morgan Chase and WK Kellogg Foundations to study workplace financial wellness programs for low- and moderate-income employees.

Despard is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.

Charrise Hart, MSW ’13, was recently featured in an article in the Wilmington Star News about her new role as executive director of the YWCA Lower Cape Fear.

Katelyn Ehle, MSW ’17, is employed as a program manager with Second Family Foundation in Carrboro.