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School briefs

Assistant professor Paul Lanier, clinical associate professor Sarah Verbiest and the Jordan Institute for Families received a $50,000 grant from the Winer Family Foundation with support from John Rex Endowment, ChildTrust Foundation and The Duke Endowment. The colleagues will use the grant to conduct the “North Carolina Landscape Study of Early Home Visiting,” the first in-depth analysis of the field of early home visiting in North Carolina. This six-month effort will survey program providers and interview key informants about existing home visiting services in the state and gauge potential improvement and expansion. Lanier is principal investigator on the project.

Assistant professor Rain Masa presented the paper, “Access to food and its association with noncognitive skills of Ghanaian youth,” and poster, “Prevalence of food insecurity and its correlates among young people in Ghana and South Africa,” at the 3rd International Conference on Global Food Security in Cape Town, South Africa, Dec. 3-6.

Professor Sheryl Zimmerman has been invited to speak next month at a launch event for “Dementia Care Practice Recommendations,” which is being hosted by the Alzheimer’s Association on Capital Hill in Washington, D.C.  Zimmerman was among the nation’s leading dementia care and support experts who helped develop the new guidelines, which will be published as a special supplement in the February 2018 edition of The Gerontologist. (Lindsay Penny Prizer, MSW ’10, worked with Zimmerman to develop the recommendations). Zimmerman will join other national top researchers and members of Congress to discuss ways to improve quality of care and quality of life for those living with dementia. She will also participate in a panel discussion on “Ongoing Care/Transitions and Coordination of Services.” In October, Zimmerman was an invited speaker to the first National Research Summit on Care, Services and Supports for Persons with Dementia and Their Caregivers. The two-day summit, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., focused on identifying what is known and what still needs to be identified to accelerate the development, evaluation, translation, implementation, and scaling up of comprehensive care, services, and supports for persons with dementia, families, and other caregivers. The summit also focused on research that is needed to improve quality of care and outcomes across care settings, including quality of life and the lived experience of persons with dementia and their caregivers. Zimmerman’s presentation, “Dementia Care in Residential Long-term Care,” was delivered during a session focused on “Research on Care Needs and Supportive Approaches for Persons with Dementia.”

The initiative “Project NO REST” has won a regional Emmy Award for a series of television and internet public service announcements (PSAs) designed to raise awareness about human trafficking. Project No Rest was developed and is facilitated by the School of Social Work as a larger campaign effort to address human trafficking of youth, ages 25 and younger, in North Carolina. The project funded the PSAs, which were recognized by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences for “Best Public Service Campaign,” in the 32nd Annual Mid-South Regional Emmy Awards Ceremony in Nashville, Tenn., on Jan. 20, 2018.  The PSAs were directed under the guidance of Capitol Broadcasting, an integrated communications company that operates television stations, radio stations and websites in North Carolina along with Fourth Rule Films, a North Carolina-based video production firm.

Mark Testa,  the Spears-Turner Distinguished Professor of Social Work, was recently inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare. Testa pictured here with Selena Childs, director of strategic initiatives for the Jordan Institute for Families, was recognized during a formal ceremony on Friday, Jan. 12, in Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the Society for Social Work Research. He joins SSW faculty members Gary Bowen (2016), Mark Fraser (2010), Matthew Howard (2013) and Sheryl Zimmerman (2012) as a Fellow of the Academy.

Doctoral student LB Klein served on an invited keynote panel called “Beyond Buzzwords: What does ‘engaging men’ actually mean?” for the Chrysalis Network’s Solving the Campus Sexual Assault and Dating Violence  Puzzle Conference in Raleigh, on Dec. 12.

MSW student Katie Salmons was recently selected as a fellow to the NAADAC Minority Fellowship Program for Behavioral Health Professionals (NMFP-BHP). Salmons is enrolled in the Winston-Salem Distance Education and the Substance Use and Addictions Specialist programs. The scholarship program will provide Salmons a stipend for tuition, offer professional development opportunities, additional training outside of her current course load, and mentoring from working professionals to expand her passion of reducing health disparities and improving healthcare outcomes for the minority population of transition age youth.

Professor Mimi Chapman recently presented on her team’s work with “Yo Veo,” at the Mayo clinic’s annual Humanities in Medicine Symposium in Rochester, Minn. Chapman’s presentation was titled, “Yo Veo Salud: A visual intervention to counter bias among health care professionals.”