DEBORAH ADAMS
JODY BROOK
CHERYL HOLMES
MICHELLE LEVY
Scholarship Focus Poverty and policy studies; asset building and asset effects; well-being of women and children; social and economic development; theory for research; mixed methods research.
Scholarship Focus Substance abuse across the lifespan; child welfare; family drug courts; substance abuse prevention; community substance abuse strategies; mixed research methods.
Scholarship Focus Frontier and rural; integrated care; behavioral health.
Grand Challenge Reduce extreme economic inequality. Stop family violence. Build financial capability and assets for all.
Grand Challenges Close the health gap. Ensure healthy development for all youth. Advance long and productive lives.
Scholarship Focus Recruitment, retention and workforce issues; health and behavioral health; interprofessional education, integrated care; prevention; rural perspectives; engagement; organizational intervention; cross-systems collaboration.
Associate Professor
Associate Professor
The University of Kansas School of Social Welfare, rooted in the Strengths Perspective, aims to transform lives and social contexts and promote social, economic, and environmental justice in Kansas, the nation and the world. We do so by educating students to practice with integrity and competence; advancing the science and knowledge base of social work through scholarship and research; and participating in community-engaged service.
MELINDA LEWIS
Scholarship Focus Understanding the keys to successful implementation and effective and equitable interventions for families involved in child welfare.
Scholarship Focus Connections between cultural diversity, spirituality and resilience in relation to health, mental health and disabilities.
Scholarship Focus Intersections of social work, gerontology, and sexuality; support the sexual needs of aging populations and to improve the health and well-being of LGBTQ midlife and older adults.
Scholarship Focus Poverty and economic inequality; asset-based financial aid; social change; strategies for effective policy advocacy by nonprofit organizations; advocacy evaluation; advocacy capacity-building for individuals and social service organizations.
Relationship Building: We engage in relationship building that fosters creativity, collaboration, and mutual learning. Relationship building is essential across practice, scholarship, education and service. We take a strengths approach as we serve our local, state, national, and global communities.
Grand Challenges Achieve equal opportunity and justice. Reduce extreme economic inequality. Ensure healthy development for all youth. Build financial capability and assets for all.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: We embrace the inherent worth of all people. By taking the position of cultural humility and applying the lens of intersectionality, we seek to develop and promote modes of anti-oppressive social work and dismantle structures of exclusion.
Assistant Professor
Professor
Grand Challenges Achieve equal opportunity and justice. Create social responses to a changing environment. Advance long and productive lives.
Associate Professor of Practice
Grand Challenge Achieve equal opportunity and justice. Close the health gap. Advance long and productive lives.
MEREDITH BAGWELL-GRAY
JULIANA CARLSON
NANCY KEPPLE
ALLY MABRY
Scholarship Focus Reduce health disparities for survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV); sexual safety planning intervention to address HIV/STI risk, substance use, and trauma.
Scholarship Focus International organizational practices to engage men in gender-based violence prevention; formal support of new and expectant fathers to reduce child exposure to domestic violence; economic and social justice for families.
Scholarship Focus Social consequences of the availability, distribution and use of psychoactive substances; substance use behaviors among parenting populations; the role of parent substance use in child welfare decision-making; and racial/ethnic disparities within the child welfare system.
Grand Challenge
Grand Challenges Stop family violence. Ensure healthy development for all youth. Eradicate social isolation.
Scholarship Focus Evidence-based best practices implementation support for organizations providing services to adults and transition age youth who experience serious mental illness; Strengths Model of Case Management; development of fidelity scales; Client-centered social administrative practices for mental health organizations and state mental health authorities.
Grand Challenge Stop family violence.
Assistant Professor
Stop family violence.
Assistant Professor
Research Project Director
Grand Challenges Eradicate social isolation. End homelessness. Reduce extreme economic inequality. Achieve equal opportunity and justice.
MAHASWETA BANERJEE
CRYSTAL COLES
TERRY KOENIG
JASON MATEJKOWSKI
Scholarship Focus Theories and practices associated with enhancing social and economic justice; community development; micro-enterprise as an anti-poverty strategy; international social development; qualitative and quantitative research.
Scholarship Focus Child welfare and the intersection of the African-American/ Black diaspora through the lens of health disparities in rural and urban communities; focusing on the child and maternal well-being as a preventative method of children transitioning into the foster care system.
Scholarship Focus Ethical decision making in social work practice; social welfare philosophy; international social work development and crosscultural practices; Central Asian and post-Soviet issues; aging, elder abuse and self-neglect; qualitative research methods.
Scholarship Focus Policies and services involving adults with mental illness who are involved with the criminal justice system or who are homeless.
Grand Challenge Ensure healthy development for all youth. Achieve equal opportunity and justice.
Grand Challenge Achieve equal opportunity and justice.
Professor
Grand Challenges Reduce extreme economic inequality. Build financial capability and assets for all.
socwel.ku.edu
All individuals, families, & communities utilize their power to achieve justice, equity, & well-being.
SARAH JEN
Assistant Professor
Highly productive, nationally and internationally renowned faculty and researchers with expertise in seven research cluster areas: strengths, child & family well-being, social & economic justice, health equity, mental/behavioral health, older adults, and global social work.
Grand Challenges Ensure healthy development for all youth. Close the health gap. Achieve equal opportunity and justice.
OUR VISION & MISSION
EDWARD R. CANDA
Grand Challenge Ensure healthy development for all youth. Stop family violence.
PROFILES
Grand Challenges Closing the health gap. Eradicating social isolation.
Research Associate
BECCI AKIN Associate Professor
FACULTY & RESEARCHER
Research Project Director
Assistant Professor
Professor
Associate Professor
Grand Challenges Promote smart decarceration. End homelessness.
Guiding Principles & Values
Practice with Integrity: We demonstrate our integrity and trustworthiness as scholars, educators, practitioners, and community members by promoting social work values, ethical practice, and the process of critical reflection. Multisystem Competency: We recognize that social, economic, and environmental injustices are the root causes of inequities and multiple strategies are necessary to address these. Our work integrates micro/macro social work and builds collaboration across systems and disciplines to create multi-level change. Critical Perspective: We engage in deliberate and continuing examination of social conditions and solutions. We use critical inquiry to analyze and challenge existing structures and systems in order to advance the field and promote social, economic, and environmental justice. Empirically Informed Social Work: We rigorously advance empirical research that impacts the social work knowledge base. By translating and applying evidence, we continually transform practice and policy across multiple systems.
MICHAEL RIQUINO Assistant Professor
12
Scholarship Focus Understanding the processes underlying self-harm, evaluating the mechanisms informing treatment, and integrating the wisdom of youth voices by addressing self-harm across micro and macro levels - especially youth with marginalized identities. Grand Challenges Close the health gap. Ensure healthy development for all youth. Advance long and productive lives. Achieve equal opportunity and justice.
EDWARD SCANLON Associate Professor
Scholarship Focus Anti-poverty programs and policies; social justice; policy and social change strategies.
Grand Challenges for Social Work initiated by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare as a groundbreaking initiative to CHAMPION SOCIAL PROGRESS powered by science. It’s a call to action for all of us to work TOGETHER to tackle our NATION’S TOUGHEST SOCIAL PROBLEMS.
74%
of our FACULTY AND RESEARCHERS are working together to address the INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY WELL-BEING Grand Challenge in the focus areas of ensuring healthy development for all youth, closing the health gap, stopping family violence, advancing long and productive lives
39%
of our FACULTY AND RESEARCHERS are working together to address the STRONGER SOCIAL FABRIC Grand Challenge in the focus areas of eradicating social isolation, ending homelessness, creating social responses to a changing environment, harnessing technology for social good
Grand Challenges Achieve equal opportunity and justice. Reduce extreme economic inequality. Create social responses to a changing environment. Build financial capability and assets for all.
AMY MENDENHALL
PAUL SMOKOWSKI
Scholarship Focus Building knowledge for the systems that serve children, adolescents, and families to enhance community-based services and improve the well-being of children and families. Investigating questions related to implementation and evaluation of interventions, incorporation of consumer perspectives, and community professionals’ knowledge and preparation for providing services to families.
Scholarship Focus Children and families, Latino immigrant families, rural youth, school, health, psychodrama techniques.
Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Research
Professor
Grand Challenge Ensure healthy development for all youth.
Grand Challenges Achieve equal opportunity and justice. Close the health gap. Ensure health development for all youth.
BRIANA MCGEOUGH
MEGAN PACELEY
CARRIE WENDEL-HUMMELL
Scholarship Focus Understanding and intervening on mental health disparities experienced by sexual minority individuals, particularly disparities in depression and alcohol use disorders.
Scholarship Focus Understanding the impact of non-urban communities on the health and well-being of gender and sexual minority (GSM) youth; development, sustainability, and evaluation of gender and sexual minority community organizations.
Scholarship Focus Healthcare and long term services and supports policy, mental health over the life-course, aging with disabilities, mixed methods research, community based research.
Assistant Professor
Grand Challenges Close the health gap. Ensure healthy development for all youth. Advance long and productive lives. Achieve equal opportunity and justice.
Assistant Professor
Grand Challenges Eradicate social isolation. Achieve equal opportunity and justice. Close the health gap. Create social responses to a changing environment. Ensure healthy development for all youth. Stop family violence. Advance long and productive lives.
Project Manager
Grand Challenges Eradicate social isolation. Close the health gap. Advance long and productive lives.
visit socwel.ku.edu for publication and presentation information
58%
of our FACULTY AND RESEARCHERS are working together to address the JUST SOCIETY Grand Challenge in the focus areas of promoting smart decarceration, building financial capability for all, reducing extreme economic inequality, achieve equal opportunity and justice