Suclupe, Fellow Cohort Classmates Ready for ‘Challenge’ in New DSW Program

Suclupe, first cohort begin DSW paths

Primarily online program includes organizational leadership track

By David Miller

As a supervisory social worker for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Will Suclupe has many responsibilities in the state of Alabama.

He manages social workers in mental health outpatient and primary care settings and coordinates outreach in rural areas in and around Selma. Suclupe also manages Veterans Integration to Academic Leadership, a program that provides healthcare services to the veteran and military community at The University of Alabama.

Suclupe also balances military obligations as a behavioral science officer in the Army National Guard.

In Fall 2019, he added “doctoral student” to his growing list of professional endeavors. Suclupe, who earned his MSW from the UA School of Social Work in 2014, is part of the first cohort of the School’s primarily online DSW program.

The transition has been a “challenge,” but to advance within the VA system, for which he’s worked since 2014, obtaining his DSW is necessary, he said. “To get to the next level at the VA, it’s going to be competitive,” Suclupe said. “At the VA, I’ve seen others in different disciplines get their doctorates to catapult them through that ceiling. I needed to set myself apart from my colleagues that will be competing for higher administrative positions with the VA.”

The UA School of Social Work launched its primarily online DSW program in Fall 2019, less than a year after the UA Board of Trustees approved the program. The DSW program’s first cohort of 20 students (selected out of 135 applicants) began classes in fall 2019 and are split between two tracks – advanced clinical social work and organizational leadership.

The School previously offered a DSW before establishing its PhD program. The previous program served as the School of Social Work’s research doctorate, structured around research methodology and prepared social workers for careers in research and scholarship. Later, the original DSW program was converted to the current PhD program. Conversely, the new DSW program offers MSW-level

practitioners with significant practice experience coursework on theory, advanced practice and evaluation skills to help them advance in their current practice.

Dr. Nicole Ruggiano, interim director of the DSW program, said that there isn’t one specific career trajectory for DSW-trained practitioners, and that the DSW program can prepare social workers for advancement in fields across the discipline in clinical, academic, and management settings. For instance, for clinical social workers who want to move and advance in administration, UA’s DSW program offers them more management experience through courses like “human services financing” and “workforce management.” The program can also provide clinicians with new expertise to help solve complex issues and potentially increase an agency’s revenue by creating new services or fundraising approaches.

Ruggiano said most DSW programs do not offer an organization leadership or management-type track, which is “a big draw” for students that apply to UA’s DSW program.

“The next trajectory would be some type of chief for our discipline within the VA,” said Suclupe, who is enrolled in the organizational leadership track. “More down the road, it could be executive positions. A DSW will teach me the skills to navigate a place like the VA, to understand the research component and data analysis, but also have my foot in agency work.”

UA’s DSW program can also help supplement continued education typically accrued over many years to help create a faster trajectory to career goals, Ruggiano said.

THE PROGRAM The DSW program is a 45-credit program that should take three years to complete. Students attend courses part-time – typically two per semester – during the fall, spring and summer semesters. Tuition is only $18,900 for the entire three years for both in-state and out-of-state students.

The program requires attendance of various workshops each summer on UA’s campus and completion of a “capstone project,” which will require a student to identify a problem in the social work field, implement an intervention to address it, evaluate it, and then present their findings and plan for moving forward. UA’s DSW core courses reflect traditional social work topics, like disparities, oppression, disadvantaged groups, policy advocacy and community work.

“We made a case that a DSW program is needed in Alabama because of the complex health and social service needs across the state. There is a need for expertise and advanced practice for local populations that have historically experienced discrimination, oppression, and isolation that have resulted in racial, economic, and geographic disparities,” Ruggiano said. “So that had to be at the forefront of what the student will learn in our program.”

THE FIRST COHORT Eight of the 20 students are from Alabama, and most are from the Southeast. Three are from the West Coast, and one is from Canada. Of the group, 30 percent are ethnic or racial minorities. The average age of the first cohort is 39.6. And, similar to other DSW programs, there’s a great deal of postMSW practice experience, with a range of three to 19 years, Ruggiano said.

Additionally, the students have many different backgrounds, including MSW-level and adjunct faculty at other schools of social work and those working in mental and medical healthcare.

“It’s exciting to me to know that, for our DSW students in Alabama, they’re educating our own social workers and providing services to people in our communities,” Ruggiano said. “As we grow, it’ll help address more dire needs in Alabama.”

Twenty students, some with as many as 19 years of postMSW experience, began their first semester in the DSW program in fall 2019.