Commencement 2020
June 6, 2020 Celebrating our thirty-first commencement
Institute for Clinical Social Work Thirty-First Commencement
Opening Joan Servatius, Ph.D., Academic Dean
Welcome Michelle Curtain Stewart, Ed.D., President
Greetings Freda Friedman, Ph.D., Chair, Board of Trustees
President’s Message to Graduates
Nicole Johnson Roberson, Ph.D. Candidate
Commencement Address Alex Kotlowitz
Presentation of Degrees Joan Servatius, Ph.D., Academic Dean
Virtual Processional Alumni Toast Leah Harp, Ph.D., Alumni Relations Committee
Closing Remarks Michael Bauman, M.S., Vice President for Finance & Operations
Institute for Clinical Social Work Thirty-First Commencement
Alex Kotlowitz, Commencement Speaker For forty years, Alex Kotlowitz has been telling stories from the heart of America, deeply intimate tales of struggle and perseverance. He is the author of four books, including his most
recent, An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago. His other books include the national bestseller There Are No Children Here, which the New York Public Library selected as one of the 150 most important books of the twentieth century. It received the Helen B. Bernstein Award and was adapted as a television movie produced by and starring Oprah Winfrey. It was selected by The New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year along with his second book, The Other Side of the River which also received The Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize for Nonfiction. His book on Chicago, Never a City So Real, was recently released in paperback. While Alex’s home is print, he has also worked in film and radio. His documentary, The Interrupters, a collaboration with Steve James, premiered at Sundance in January 2011 and aired as a two-hour special on PBS’s FRONTLINE. It was cited as one of the best films of the year by The New Yorker, The Chicago Tribune, Entertainment Weekly and The LA Times. For the film, Alex
received an Emmy, a Cinema Eye Award and an Independent Spirit Award. A former staff writer at The Wall Street Journal, Alex’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and on This American Life. His stories, which one reviewer wrote “inform the heart”, have also appeared in Granta, Rolling Stone, The Chicago Tribune, Slate and The Washington Post, as well as on PBS (Frontline, the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour and Media Matters) and on NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition. His play, An Unobstructed View, written with Amy Drozdowska, premiered in Chicago in June 2005. In 2016, Alex worked with inmates at Illinois’ Stateville prison on essays about their cells. The stories which ran on The New Yorker’s website and on The New Yorker’s Radio Hour became the basis for the podcast Written Inside. NPR’s Lauren Ober, who picked it as one of the top ten podcasts of the year, wrote: “It’s an intimate look at life behind bars that will likely change the way you think about incarceration.” Alex has been honored in all three mediums, including two Peabodys, two Columbia duPonts, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. He’s also the recipient of eight
honorary degrees, the John LaFarge Memorial Award for Interracial Justice given by New York ’s Catholic Interracial Council and the 2019 Harold Washington Literary Award.
Institute for Clinical Social Work Thirty-First Commencement
Candidates for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Social Work Jennifer Bulow
Dissertation: Therapist Experience: Re-Envisioning Politics in Psychotherapy Xhosa Burford Dissertation: The Role of Attachment Style in Weight-Loss Surgery Outcomes Ellen Dal Pra Dissertation: Impact of Cell Phones: Family’s Experience of Cohesion and Flexibility Pass with Distinction Latasha Ellis Dissertation: Culture into Practice: African American Doctor-Patient Dyad
Alexis Jaeger Dissertation: Maternal Reverie and the Transition to Motherhood Caroline Moore Dissertation: I Am Billy’s Sister: The Psychological Life of Siblinghood Nicole Johnson Roberson Dissertation: Divorce in Black America: Narratives from Divorced Black Men Wendy Selene Dissertation: Young Adult Parent Loss: An Exploratory Study Virginia Shropshire
Dissertation: 4 All Time I Am with U: The Prince Fan Experience
Institute for Clinical Social Work Thirty-First Commencement
Candidates for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Social Work David Sisk Dissertation: Working with Parents In Psychodynamic Child Psychotherapy Pass With Distinction Katherine Romey Smaller Dissertation: Video Therapy: Attitudes among the Psychodynamic Community Pass With Distinction
Candidates for the Degree Master of Arts in Clinical Counseling and Psychotherapy Jasmina Bourgeois
Ariel Carter Nicholas Krysztopik Natalia Maltsev William Singerman Maxwell Weiss
Institute for Clinical Social Work Thirty-First Commencement
Faculty of the Institute for Clinical Social Work Andrea Alpert, Ph.D.
Kevin McMahon, M.S.W.
Paula L. Ammerman, Ph.D.
Harriet Meek, Ph.D.
Judith Aronson, Ph.D.
Judith Newman, M.S.W.
Karen Baker, M.S.W.
Joseph Palombo, M.A.—Emeritus Director
Joan Berzoff, Ph.D.
Louis Pansulla, M.S.W.
Karen Bloomberg, Ph.D.
Caryle Perlman, M.S.
Kers�n Blumhardt, Ph.D.
Michelle Piotrowski, Ph.D.
Lynn Borenstein, MSW—Emerita
Geoffrey Rees, Ph.D.
Michael Casali, Ph.D.
Miriam Reitz, Ph.D.—Emerita
Sue Stollenwerk Cebulko, Ph.D.
John W. Ridings, Ph.D.
Joseph M. Cronin, M.S.W.—Emeritus
Greg Rizzolo, M.A.
Karen Daiter, Ph.D.
Ida Roldan, Ph.D.
Santiago Delboy, MBA
Gabriel Ruiz, M.A.
Joan Di Leonardi, Ph.D.
Charles Saltzman, M.S.W.—Emeritus
Denise Duval Tsioles, Ph.D.
Louise Saltzman, M.S.W.—Emerita
Amy Eldridge, Ph.D.—Emerita
Erika Schmidt, M.S.W.
Sherwood Faigen, M.A.
Gretchen Schmutz, Psy.D.
Robert Feldman, M.A.
Allan Scholom, Ph.D.
Linda Freedman, Ph.D.
Patricia A. Seghers, Ph.D.
Freda Baron Friedman, Ph.D.
Joan Servaius, Ph.D.
Carol Ganzer, Ph.D.
J. Peter Shaft, M.S.W.
William Gieseke, Ph.D.
R. Dennis Shelby, Ph.D.—Emeritus
Mead Goedert, Ph.D.
Brenda Solomon, Ph.D.
Constance Goldberg, M.S.—Emerita
Jonathan Spiegel, M.S.W.
James Grabowski, M.A.
Cynthia Stone, Ph.D.—Emerita
Madelyn Greenberger, M.S.
Andrew Suth, Ph.D.
Amy Groessl, Ph.D.
Michelle Sweet, Ph.D.
Edward Haley, A.M.—Emeritus
Boris Thomas, Ph.D.
Michael Hoffman, M.D.
Jennifer Tolleson, Ph.D.
Joel Kanter, M.S.W.
Lynne Tylke, Ph.D.
James N. Lampe, Ph.D.
Jacqueline Vincson, Ph.D.
Carla Leone, Ph.D.
Steve Vogelstein, Ph.D.
Robert M. Mardirossian, Ph.D.
Andrew Weaver , M.S.W.
Lynn McIntyre, Ph.D.
Jeffrey S. Yarvis, Ph.D.
Institute for Clinical Social Work Thirty-First Commencement
Board of Trustees of the Institute for Clinical Social Work Freda Baron Friedman, Chair Barbara Berger, Secretary
Fady Bebaway, Treasurer Barbara Alexander Robert Feldman, Faculty Advisory Council Representative Carol Goldbaum Jeffrey Greenberger Leah Harp Elaine Klemen John Moynihan, Student Representative Steve Nichols
Administration of the Institute for Clinical Social Work Michelle Curtain Stewart, Ed.D., President Michael Bauman, M.S., Vice President of Finance and Operations Andrea Dunbar, M.S.W., Director of Student and Academic Affairs Kenneth Frierson, M.Ed., Associate Director of Admissions and Enrollment Management Ramona James, Ed.D., Director of the Master’s Program Shawna Jennings, B.S., Associate Director of Financial Aid and Communications Eric Ornstein, M.A., Interim Field Liaison Joan Servatius, Ph.D., Academic Dean Elree Smith, B.A., Events and Administrative Coordinator
Institute for Clinical Social Work Thirty-First Commencement
Our Mission The mission of the Institute for Clinical Social Work, an institution of higher education, is to prepare scholars and practitioners to advance the knowledge and quality of practice in the fields of clinical social work and counseling and to serve diverse communities through professional and academic contributions.
Our Vision As a highly‐respected institute, to become well‐known for diverse and accessible psychodynamic educational programming.
Our Values In keeping with our roots in social work and our commitment to social justice, we develop psychodynamically informed professionals who recognize and celebrate diversity, practice compassionately, and have the knowledge and skills to empower people to lead meaningful lives.
Institute for Clinical Social Work Thirty-First Commencement