YUN CHEN, MSW
School of Social Work | University of Michigan | 1080 S. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Email: yunch@umich.edu | Phone: (734) 881-2883
EDUCATION
2025 (expected)
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
School of Social Work
Ph.D. in Social Work & Anthropology
Dissertation: Monopsonizing Experimentation: Making Persons and Orders through Social Work in China’s Anti-Drug Field Committee: Karen M. Staller, PhD, JD (co-chair, social work); Matthew S. Hull, PhD (co-chair, anthropology); Beth Glover Reed, PhD (social work); Elizabeth F. S. Roberts, PhD (anthropology); Erik Mueggler, PhD (anthropology)
Certificate of Addictions Treatment (*Continuing Education program in the School of Social Work)
Certificate of Graduate Studies in Science, Technology & Society (STS)
2015 The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
School of Social Service Administration
(*now Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice)
A.M. in Social Service Administration (MSW equivalent)
2012 Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China
School of Sociology and Anthropology
LL.B. in Social Work (BSW equivalent)
Thesis: Constructing and Practicing Home: “Family Care” Model in Institutional Care for Abandoned Children.
2012 National Taiwan University, Taiwan
School of Social Work
Non-degree exchange student
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Topical & Theoretical International social work, drug addiction services, peer services, bureaucracy and governance, service coordination across boundaries, professionalization, pragmatism, practice and research relationship, social work epistemologies
Methodological Qualitative and participatory methodologies
Areal United States and Mainland China
PULICATIONS
English-Language Peer-Reviewed Articles
Chen, Y. (Forthcoming). Becoming a peer, becoming a person: subject formation in China’s antidrug social work. Social Service Review.
Chen, Y., Shi, T., and Wu, B. (Forthcoming). Situated knowledge making in dynamic collaboration: a reflexive case study of social work practice research in mainland China. Qualitative Social Work.
Chen, Y., Yuan, Y., and Reed, B. G. (2023). Experiences of peer work in drug use service settings: a systematic review of qualitative evidence. International Journal of Drug Policy, 120: 104182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2023.104182
Pinto, R. M., Chen, Y., and Park, S. (2019) A Client-centered relational framework on barriers to the integration of HIV and substance use services: A systematic review. Harm Reduction Journal, 16: 71. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-019-0347-x
McLaughlin, S. J., Chen, Y., Tham, S. S. X., Zhang, J., and Li, L. W. (2019). Healthy aging in China: benchmarks and socio-structural correlates. Research on Aging, 41(1): 23-33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027519879105.
Yasui, M., Pottick, K., and Chen, Y. (2017). Conceptualizing culturally infused engagement and its measurement for ethnic minority and immigrant children and families. Clinical Child & Family Psychology Review, 20(3), 250-332. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-017-0229-2. (*Paper received an honorable mention in the 2019 Society for Social Work and Research Excellence in Research Award.)
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapter
Staller, K. M., & Chen, Y. (2022). Choosing a research design for qualitative research – a Ferris wheel of approaches. In U. Flick (Ed.) SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Design (pp.6986). SAGE Publications, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529770278.
In Progress
Chen, Y. People-work through paperwork: the working ethics of anti-drug social work in the Compulsory Community Detoxification Program in Urban China. To be submitted to Social Service Review
Chen, Y. Shi, T., and Wu, B. Surviving and thriving in fragmented authoritarianism: a systematic review on the relationship between social work and the state under China’s government purchase of social service scheme. To be submitted to Social Policy & Administration
Chinese-Language
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Wu, S., Zhu, L., Zhu, Y., Chen, W., Chen, Y., and Zhang, L. (2021). Research on the effects, causes, and countermeasures of Chinese youth illicit drug use: a systematic review (1996-2020). Chinese Journal of Drug Dependence, 30(2): 97-105. https://doi.org/10.13936/j.cnki.cjdd1992.2021.02.004
Zhu, B., Wu, S., Chen, W., Chen, Y., Zhang, L., and Zhu, Y. (2021). Illicit drug use among youth in China (1996-2020): a systematic review Journal of East China University of Science and Technology (Social Science Edition), 1(36): 76-98.
Tong, M., Chen, Y., and Luo, C. (2019). Identity reconstruction of people with severe mental illness in the community: comparing the logics of two long-term companionship-oriented service models. Social Work Review, 3: 3-20. (ISBN: 9787208157088)
Tong, M., Chen, Y., and Luo, C. (2019). Mental health social work from the public security perspective: A reflection on community outreach services. China Social Work Review, 1: 148162. (ISBN: 9787508761640)
Editorial Work for Qualitative Social Work
Chen, Y. & Piedra, L. M. (2024). In this issue… exploring identities, methodologies, and lived experiences in social work practice. Qualitative Social Work https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241288988
Chen, Y. & Piedra, L. M. (2024). In this issue… exploring violence, reflexivity, and transformative practices. Qualitative Social Work, 23(4), 597-601. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241262572
Chen, Y. (2024). In this issue… Qualitative Social Work, 23(2), 219-223. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250241228679.
Chen, Y., Lanesskog, D., & Piedra, L. M. (2023). In this issue…Onward! Qualitative Social Work, 22(6), 1055-1050. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250231205543.
Chen, Y. (2023). In this issue…A reader’s positionality. Qualitative Social Work, 22(4), 619-622. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250231183262.
Chen, Y. (2023). In this issue…with a note on context. Qualitative Social Work, 22(2), 197-199. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250231153502.
Chen, Y. (2023). In this issue…Situating social work in the life worlds of people we work with. Qualitative Social Work, 22(1), 8-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250221145115
Book Reviews
Shi, T., and Chen, Y. (2023). Book Review: Shehuigongzuo shixijiaoyu yanjiu de fanshenxing shuxie [Reflexive Writing on Research of Social Work Practice Education]. China Journal of Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1080/17525098.2023.2210350.
Chen, Y. (2023). Author interview with Nicholas Bartlett on Recovering Histories: Life and Labor after Heroin in Reform-Era China. University of California Press. Available at https://campanthropology.org/2023/04/10/nick-bartlett-on-his-book-recoveringhistories/
Chen, Y. (2017). Book Review (in Chinese): Government of Paper: The Materiality of Bureaucracy in Urban Pakistan. Journal of Anthropological Studies, 2: 182-189. (ISBN: 9787100129824)
PEER-REVIEWED PRESENTATIONS
Chen, Y., Shi, T., and Wu, B. (May 2024). Paper: Situated Knowledge-Making in Dynamic Collaboration: A Reflexive Case Study of Social Work Practice Research in Mainland China. 20th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI), Champaign, Illinois.
Chen, Y. (January 2024). Paper: Traces of Recovery: Making Recovering Persons through the Compulsory Community Detoxification Program in Urban China. Society for Social Work Research (SSWR) 2024 Annual Conference, Washington, DC.
Chen, Y. (November 2023). Roundtable: Figuring the State: Affective Labor in Bureaucratic Encounters on State Margins. American Anthropological Association (AAA) 2023 Annual Meeting, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Chen, Y. (June 2023). Paper: Signs of Recovering: Anti-Drug Social Work Practices in (Re)making China’s Recovering-Addicts. Association for Asian Studies, 2023 AAS-in-Asia Conference, Daegu, South Korea.
Chen, Y. (November 2022). Roundtable: Unsettling Good Intensions. American Anthropological Association (AAA) 2022 Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington.
Chen, Y., and Yuan, Y. (January 2022). Paper: Situating Experiential Knowledge: A Systematic Review and Synthesis of Qualitative Evidence on Peer Support Services for Drug Addiction Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) 2022 Annual Conference, Washington, DC.
Chen, Y. (November 2021). Roundtable: Ethnographers as Collaborators: Tensions Producing Knowledge in the Field American Anthropological Association (AAA) 2021 Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland.
Chen, Y. (January 2020). Roundtable: Implicit Epistemological Privileging: Structures of Knowledge (Re)production in the Social Work Academy. Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) 2020 Annual Conference, Washington, DC.
Chen, Y. (January 2019). Paper: Professionalizing Everyday Life: How Frontline Social Workers Negotiate Professional Identities in Community-Based Mental Health Services in Mainland China Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) 2019 Annual Conference, San Francisco, California
Chen, Y. (July 2018). Paper: Trajectory Revisited: How Social Work Planted Itself in Mental Health During the Profession’s Nascent Stage in America Joint World Conference on Social Work, Education and Social Development 2018, Dublin, Ireland.
Yasui, M., and Chen, Y. (August 2016). Paper: Asian American Mental Health: Examining Cultural Pathways to Mental Health Service Use. Conference on Evidence Based Intervention in Mental Health across Disciplines: Strategies for Collaboration at the University of Chicago Center in Beijing, Beijing, China.
RESEARCH & WRITING GRANTS (all in Principal Investigator role)
04/2020 The Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF), $22100 Social Science Research Council (Extramural grant)
02/2024
2024-2025 Graduate Student Fellowship (Dissertation Writing Grant)
$41310, plus full tuition and healthcare for AY2024-2025 Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan
03/2023 Dissertation Writing Institute Award, $4000
05/2021
Sweetland Center for Writing, University of Michigan
Dissertation Travel and Research Grant, $3500
Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
01/2021 Rackham International Research Award, $6500
Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
12/2020 Rackham Graduate Student Research Award, $3000
Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
01/2020 Doctoral Grants for International Research, $3000 School of Social Work, University of Michigan
03/2019 International Institute Individual Fellowship, $3000 College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan
03/2019
Summer Preparatory Field Research Grant, $5000
Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
SCHOLARSHIPS & AWARDS & HONORS
03/2024 Karl C. K. Ma Endowed Graduate Scholarship, $12990
Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
11/2023 The Henry J. Meyer Award, $18000 Award-winning paper titled “Becoming a Peer, Becoming a Person: Personhood Construction in China’s Anti-Drug Social Work.”
03/2022
School of Social Work, University of Michigan
Barbour Scholarship
$36083, plus full tuition and healthcare for AY2022-2023
Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
2020 Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) Award for Fall 2020 teaching Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan
01/2019
Irene and William Gambrill Fellowship
$3250 awarded to doctoral students whose research is on integrating practice, research, and ethical issues
School of Social Work, University of Michigan
01/2019
12/2018
Honorable mention for the Excellence in Research Award Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR)
Rackham International Students Fellowship, $10000 Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
11/2018 Joseph Veroff and Katherine Luke Memorial Award
$1000 awarded to design and organize a “Conversations Across Social Disciplines” panel, titled “A Critical Dialogue on Addiction: Bridging Theories and Practices from Feminist Viewpoints.”
School of Social Work, University of Michigan
11/2017
2013-15
2008-09
Doctoral Fellowship for Underrepresented Students, $1500 School of Social Work, University of Michigan
Merit-Based Scholarship for MSW Students, $19000 Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of Chicago
National Scholarship, 8000 Chinese Yuan
*The highest honor among national-level scholarships for college students in China, with a 0.2% award winning rate. Ministry of Education, People’s Republic of China
Conference Travel Grants:
2024, 2020, 2019
03/2023
Dean’s Conference Travel Fund, $400 for attending SSWR Annual Conferences School of Social Work, University of Michigan
International Travel Grant, $1000 (declined)
AAS-in-ASIA 2023 Conference, Association for Asian Studies
2019, 2018
03/2018
Rackham Travel Grant, $800 for attending domestic conferences
Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
Rackham International Travel Grant, $1050 for attending international conference
Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
01/201804/2019
Graduate Student Research Assistant
PI: Dr. Rogério Pinto, School of Social Work, University of Michigan
Project: Interprofessional Collaboration Implementation Group on HIV prevention and substance misuse services.
Tasks: ethnographic data collection, qualitative interview, survey data analysis, systematic literature review, manuscript preparation
09/201609/2017
09/201508/2016
Full-Time Research Assistant (post-MSW)
PI: Dr. Min Tong, Department of Social Work, Xiamen University
Project: Professionalization and Localization of Community-based Mental Health Social Work in China: The Assertive Community Treatment Model
Tasks: service manual and journal article manuscripts preparation, qualitative data collection and analysis in the practice research project
Part-Time Research Assistant (post-MSW)
PI: Dr. Miwa Yasui, Crown Family School, The University of Chicago
Project: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Mental Health Service Use and Treatment Outcomes
Tasks: qualitative data coding and analysis (Nvivo), clinical scale development, manuscript preparation, research team and project management
TEACHING INTERESTS
Social Welfare Policy and Programs, International Social Work, Substance Use Services, Research Methods (especially Qualitative and Participatory Methodologies), Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Social Theory, Social Work Histories, Medical Anthropology, Critical Theories in Healthcare and Medicine
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Fall 2023, Fall 2024
International and Multicultural Student Policy Study Group (for SW 508 Essentials of Social Welfare Policy)
School of Social Work, University of Michigan
As Organizer and Mentor
Winter 2024
Fall 2020
Essentials of Social Welfare Policy (SW 508, MSW foundational course)
School of Social Work, University of Michigan
As Sole Instructor
The Globalization of Biomedicine (ANTH 341, upper-level undergraduate course) Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan
As Graduate Student Instructor (GSI)
Instructor: Dr. Scott Stonington
*Awarded the Outstanding GSI Award for Fall 2020 teaching in the Department of Anthropology
Winter 2020
Medical Anthropology (ANTH 344, upper-level undergraduate course)
Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan
As Graduate Student Instructor (GSI)
Instructor: Dr. Holly Peters-Golden
Fall 2019 Critical Theory in Medicine and Healing (ANTH 327, upper-level undergraduate writing course)
Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan
As Graduate Student Instructor (GSI)
Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth F.S. Roberts
03/2023 Guest Lecture titled “Why Study Social Work as an Anthropologist?” for MSW
foundational course Social Work Research Methods
Steve Hicks School of Social Work, The University of Texas at Austin
Instructor: Dr. Yuanjin Zhou
03/2018 Guest Lecture titled “Care in Vivo: Contested Boundaries of Kinship and Professionality in Community Mental Health Social Work Services in China” for undergraduate seminar
Contemporary China: Anthropological Perspectives
Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan
Instructor: Dr. Erik Mueggler
PRACTICE EXPERIENCE
10/201406/2015
07/201408/2014
Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, Chicago, IL, USA
Social Work Intern
Role: provided unaccompanied immigrant children with individual case management and advocacy during their immigration proceedings, including weekly visits to Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) facilities, accompanying minors to court hearings, collaborating with legal practitioners to draft Best Interest Recommendations, and providing post-release support, such as linking minors to school resources
Slum Rehabilitation Society, Mumbai, India
Short-term Social Work Intern
Role: shadowing local social workers to home visits and community services
*This was the field practicum component of the global exchange summer program between the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai
10/201306/2014
09/201201/2013
Heartland Health Outreach, Chicago, IL, USA
Social Work Intern, in Community Support Team
Role: intensive case management in non-shelter living settings for homeless adults with substance use challenges and chronic mental illness, including medication monitoring, housing advocacy, assistance with healthcare services, and service linkage with external community resources
Xiamen Social Welfare Center, Xiamen, Fujian, China
Social Work Intern, in the Social Workstation for children with disabilities
Role: designed and facilitated literacy groups and other group-based projects for children with developmental disabilities
03/201108/2011
One Heart Foundation of Fujian Province, Xiamen, Fujian, China
Social Work Intern, in Children and Elderly Service Programs
Role: designed training curriculum, facilitated training sessions, and conducted regular supervision and management for volunteers; designed and managed an intensive summer camp program for children in institutional care
09/201001/2011
10/200907/2010
Kangle Community Residents’ Committee, Xiamen, Fujian, China
Social Work Intern, in Home-based Community Elderly Care Program
Role: designed and executed an “integrated community care” model for ablebodied older adults who lacked family supports; designed and conducted a qualitative evaluation of older adults’ access to and experiences of community services
Xiamen Rixin Center for Social Services, Xiamen, Fujian, China
Social Work Intern, in Empowerment Program for Migrant Children
Role: designed and managed the “Caring and Empowering Migrant Children” program integrating creative writing, applied theatre, and other art-based approaches; managed and supervised college volunteers; won a private grant for the continuation of the program
ACADEMIC & PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
09/2022present Assistant Editor for Qualitative Social Work
Ad Hoc Reviewer
07/201805/2020
AY20192020
AY20182019
11/201802/2019
01/201804/2018
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Substance Use & Misuse
Contemporary Drug Problems
Qualitative Social Work
The British Journal of Social Work
Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work
Journal of Psychosocial Oncology
Graduate student coordinator for the Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society (STeMS) Colloquium Series at University of Michigan
Doctoral Student Representative for the Doctoral Program Committee School of Social Work, University of Michigan
Doctoral Student Representative for the Office of Global Activities School of Social Work, University of Michigan
Organizer of interdisciplinary panel “A Critical Dialogue on Addiction: Bridging Theories and Practices from Feminist Viewpoints”
School of Social Work, University of Michigan
Student Coordinator for the Tsinghua-UMSSW Academic Exchange Series: Philanthropy and Social Work Mini-Conference
School of Social Work, University of Michigan
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
2018- Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR)
2021- American Anthropological Association (AAA)
2023- Association for Asian Studies (AAS)
LANGUAGES
Mandarin Chinese (native), English (fluent)
REFERENCES
Karen M. Staller, PhD, JD Professor
School of Social Work
University of Michigan
Email: kstaller@umich.edu
Phone: (734) 763-5769
Beth Glover Reed, PhD
Associate Professor Emerita School of Social Work
University of Michigan
Email: bgr@umich.edu
Phone: (734) 763-5958
Elizabeth F. S. Roberts, PhD Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Michigan
Email: lfsrob@umich.edu
Phone: (734) 936-0642
Matthew S. Hull, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Michigan
Email: hullm@umich.edu
Phone: (734) 763-5382
Lissette Piedra, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Social Work
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Email: lmpiedra@illinois.edu
Phone: (217) 244-5236
My research is driven by the central question: How do social work practitioners define and enact their expertise, politics, and ethics within specific institutional contexts when working with marginalized groups, and to what effects? I ground this question in the field of drug addiction services, an inherently complex and multifaceted domain where service recipients are often simultaneously targets of legal punishment, moral condemnation, and social surveillance. This is a domain where the structural and institutional roles of social workers directly influence whether the profession perpetuates or challenges existing systems of power, necessitating critical reflexivity towards our own profession from scholars, practitioners, and educators.
My research is informed by my global experiences, primarily in China and the United States, and interdisciplinary training. I mainly use ethnography and other qualitative methodologies, applying critical theories to examine service provision processes. I have developed a program of research at the intersection of scholarships on global social work, critical addiction studies, social policy implementation, and social work epistemologies and histories. In particular, I organize my research into three interconnected areas of inquiry: (1) how social workers both shape and are shaped by the specific policy conditions of drug use and social welfare within which they operate, as manifested in their everyday practices; (2) how, in interprofessional and cross-institutional settings, different players (including social workers) bring various knowledge, expertise, and values into coordination to work with people who use drugs (PWUD); and (3) how to establish more effective researcher-practitioner partnerships to produce community-engaged and practice-oriented social work knowledge.
1. The contextualization of social workers. My research and practice in China and the U.S. have revealed two key insights: first, the definitions and approaches to “drug addiction” are deeply influenced by the policy frameworks and social norms of a particular locale; second, “social work” is not a static profession, but rather a dynamic and evolving tradition shaped by the unique historical and sociopolitical context of each region. In studying drug addiction services in China, I move beyond the typical global social work paradigms of adapting Western models to non-Western societies or professionalizing non-Western practices to meet Western standards. Instead, I explore how “social work” is locally constructed through practitioners’ daily (inter)actions within the broader conditions of China’s zero-tolerance anti-drug policies and its authoritarian political system.
My dissertation Monopsonizing Experimentation: Making Persons and Orders through Social Work in China’s Anti-Drug Field, funded primarily by an extramural grant from the Social Science Research Council, investigates the local invention of anti-drug social work under China’s nascent government contracting scheme. It examines how social workers are integrated into the “service-oriented social governance reforms” and the “People’s War on Drugs” orchestrated by the Communist Party-state. Through a 20-month practice-based ethnography conducted across multiple service sites of a nonprofit organization, my study uncovers the practical and ethical ambiguities in practitioners’ daily efforts to construct “anti-drug social work with Chinese characteristics.” It reveals that in a policy context where the state is the sole buyer in a growing market of social workers and their innovative services, the ambiguous professionality of local social work is co-opted by the state as a tool of governance, allowing the state to accommodate increasing social heterogeneity without undermining its authoritarian rule. By delving deep into this case, my aim is not to suggest a narrative of China exceptionalism. Rather, the study provides a vantage point to examine the relationships between care and control, service and governance, and social work and the state, as mediated by neoliberal mechanisms such as government outsourcing. These dynamics are crucial for understanding the sociopolitical embeddedness of the social work profession, offering broader conceptual implications for the U.S. and other international contexts.
2. Interprofessional and cross-institutional coordination. Drug addiction services are inherently complex and multifaceted, requiring social workers to frequently interact with actors with diverse training backgrounds and institutional affiliations. Yet, existing scholarship often assumes social workers’ professionality without considering how these interactions influence their identities, conduct, and impact. For instance, one chapter of my dissertation explores how anti-drug social workers in China adapt their work priorities and ethics to serve PWUDs within a law enforcementdominated environment. As newcomers to the field, these social workers have to conform to the norms of existing authorities to establish legitimacy while working ethically with clients who distrust this very system that surveils them. Findings contribute to broader discussions on the intersection of social work and law enforcement in and beyond China.
In examining coordination across boundaries in drug addiction field, I particularly attend to peer services, which further complicate issues of boundary, legitimacy, and hierarchy among practitioners. My work examines the experiences and impacts of peer work from the perspectives of peers, PWUD clients, and organizations, as peers are increasingly incorporated into mainstream non-peer-led addiction service settings as a unique workforce worldwide My research reveals the unique barriers and facilitators peer workers face, underscoring the importance of organizations genuinely valuing peers’ experiential knowledge to create supportive structures that benefit both peers and their clients. Additionally, my work contributes to critical scholarship that challenges the notion of “people with lived experience” as a self-evident identity category, highlighting how the definitions of “peer” and their service approaches are shaped by the institutional conditions, drug policies, and social norms of a given place. Findings have been published in Social Service Review and International Journal of Drug Policy.
3. Researcher-practitioner partnership in knowledge-production. My scholarly commitment to the contextualization of practitioners drives me to critically examine how our research activities are often influenced by and become part of the very structural conditions that shape the problems or practices we study. In a collaborative project with U.S. colleagues presented at the SSWR 2020 Conference, I examined the corporatization of social work research in the U.S., analyzing how neoliberal mechanisms have governed knowledge production in academia, privileging certain epistemological orientations and methodologies over others. Collaborating with Chinese colleagues on a manuscript accepted by Qualitative Social Work, I investigated how the emerging practice research efforts in China are shaped by local conditions of social work development. The study focuses on the interactive dynamics between and within practice and research teams, complicating the “equal partnership” ideal of participatory research. These two projects highlight the need for social work scholars to consistently practice self-reflexivity, recognizing that our research is as contextually grounded as the everyday work of practitioners. To promote this self-reflexivity in qualitative research design, I co-authored a peer-reviewed book chapter with Dr. Karen Staller emphasizing the necessity for researchers to critically examine how their backgrounds and values shape the questions they ask and the methods they choose. We stress the importance of aligning methodologies with their epistemological and axiological roots, as this directly shapes the scope of research findings. Collectively, these projects lay the groundwork for me to further develop ethical and effective research partnerships with practitioners, aimed at producing community-engaged and practice-oriented knowledge in drug addiction services.
Building on these three areas of inquiry, I aim to advance as an interdisciplinary scholar committed to developing culturally informed and structurally competent research on global social work and drug addiction services. First, I will further develop chapters from my dissertation into journal articles and expanding the dissertation into a monograph, using this China case to contribute to broader conceptual dialogues on street-level bureaucracy, social services under neoliberalism, the
relationship between social work and the state, and related topics. Second, I am eager to expand collaborations with colleagues and community partners in both China and the U.S. to further explore cross-boundary coordination in drug addiction services. My focus is on understanding the dynamic negotiations among different key players (e.g., social workers, health professionals, peer workers, law enforcement, and community members) in framing addiction issues, characterizing PWUDs, and exerting various forms of expertise to address the defined problems. This will lay the foundation for future practice and policy research on advancing integrated systems of care in this domain. I will expand my research on peer service models across different contexts, particularly focusing on the processes and impacts of peer workforce standardization in the near future. While tracking the ongoing dissemination of pilot peer models in China, I plan to explore how various certification systems affect peers’ institutional roles, professional growth, and personal wellbeing in the U.S. Third, I will continue to examine how different modes of participatory research across contexts, such as practice research in China and the involvement of peer researchers in the U.S., contribute to the democratization of social work knowledge-making in the field of drug addiction services and beyond.
Potential sources of funding for my research include the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Wenner-Gren Engaged Anthropology Grant, grants from China or East Asian Studies institutions, as well as partnerships with local health and social service departments. As an emerging social work scholar, I aim to leverage the strengths of my interdisciplinary and international training to promote more critical, diverse, ethical, communityengaged, and practice-oriented scholarship in the field.
In all my teaching, I emphasize the creation of an inclusive and dynamic learning space grounded in three principles: 1) bridging lived experiences and knowledge with critical thinking; 2) integrating practice and research in education; and 3) fostering a deep appreciation for diversity. My pedagogical approach weaves together my varied teaching and mentoring experiences, spanning both undergraduate and graduate levels, over both in-person and online platforms. My positionality as an able-bodied, cisgender, straight, first-generation college student, and first-generation immigrant East Asian woman shapes how my students and I co-create our learning space. My interdisciplinary training in social work and anthropology guides my commitment to cultural humility and structural competency in learning together with my students.
1. Bridging lived experiences and knowledge with critical thinking. My pedagogy is rooted in my early practice in a grassroots NGO in China, where I worked with marginalized migrant workers who effectively utilized their lived experiences in civic education to empower their community. This and later practice experience has made me keenly aware that social work students often bring to the classroom an invaluable tapestry of personal experiences and practice wisdom in advocating for social justice, particularly those who hold marginalized identities. Rather than positioning myself as an authority figure, I view my role as a facilitator creating space and providing tools that encourage students to engage their experiences and wisdom in dialogue with theories and concepts. Central to fostering this dialogue is the cultivation of critical thinking, which requires constant self-reflexivity on how individual experiences are shaped by broader sociocultural and political systems.
For example, in teaching Essentials of Social Welfare Policy, a foundational MSW course, I worked to cultivate students’ critical awareness of how macro policy conditions and their historical roots profoundly impact both individual lives and direct service practices at the present At the beginning of the semester, I noticed that most students initially found the policy realm abstract and distant. To help students develop personal connections with course materials, I instituted a practice where students brought in “current policy events” from news sources, field placements, or personal lives. In the first 30 minutes of each class, we together selected an example and analyzed its policy structures (e.g., budget arrangement), underlying normative beliefs, and social justice implications. This exercise encouraged students to actively link course content with real-life issues they cared about. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated in the course evaluation, “Yun made the class extremely engaging and always made the material being covered relevant by connecting it to current events and social work practice;” “I’m now considering doing policy work as a result of this course.”
2. Integrating practice and research in education. Bridging the gap between research and practice has long been a central challenge in social work. My own experience grappling with this issue in my scholarship has led me to see the classroom as a crucial space where educators can help students develop the awareness, passion, and skills needed to engage in praxis a cyclical process of knowledge-making and change-making When guest lecturing for the foundational MSW course Social Work Research Methods at the University of Texas at Austin, I used my experience to model the cyclical process of developing practice-based research. I demonstrated the evolution of my inquiries, oscillating between proposing theory-driven questions that guided my focus in practice and challenging these questions and their underlying theories using the “surprises” or “glitches” from my practice engagement. When mentoring MSW students considering an academic career, I introduced tools like reflexive research journaling to help them explore research topics from field practicum or other professional engagements. These tools encouraged students to consciously document moments of curiosity or tension and to actively seek insights from supervisors, coworkers, or clients.
My experiences have shaped a range of strategies that I will incorporate into my teaching of social work research courses and beyond, including: 1) emphasizing the relationship between
practice and research as one continuum of actions rather than two separate domains; 2) equipping students with tools to attend to research activities within their practice sites and formulate their own practice-based research questions; 3) introducing research methods that can be applied in practice, such as PhotoVoice, institutional ethnography, and community-based participatory research; and 4) designing assignments that allow students to apply specific methods in developing practice-based research projects. These strategies emphasize cultivating attentiveness, creativity, and critical thinking. I urge students to stay attuned to happenings in practice, envision alternative approaches when existing methods fall short, and critically assess how established knowledge shapes the field.
3. Fostering a deep appreciation for diversity. My commitment to diversity in pedagogy stems from my reflexive self-positioning as a scholar and practitioner with multiple personal identities and cross-cultural lived experiences. It also draws from my training in anthropology, a discipline dedicated to carefully contextualizing human experiences and safeguarding diversity. I strive to deepen students’ understanding of the complexity of human lives by encouraging them to embrace differences as learning opportunities and by foregrounding the perspectives of those often marginalized by mainstream norms and systems.
For instance, when co-teaching The Globalization of Biomedicine, an upper-level undergraduate course, I designed a three-part group assignment related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students were asked to critically apply course concepts by first analyzing a global case of COVID-19 response, then a U S domestic case, and finally reflecting on their analytical process This assignment not only deepened students’ understanding of course concepts but also heightened their awareness of three key things: the diverse sociocultural and political forces influencing the definitions and approaches to social problems in different contexts; the hidden normative assumptions shaping policies and practices in familiar environments; and the complexity of understanding “diversity” beyond simply categorizing individuals by identity markers like race, gender, ethnicity, or nationality. A student shared with me: “I learned that [COVID-19] is not the same for everyone. It’s different even among people in our own country…The differences go beyond being Zimbabwean or American. It’s about digging into all the different power structures, economic setups, and values that shape our lives.” I taught this course completely online and won an outstanding graduate teaching award in the Department of Anthropology.
In my teaching, I affirm diversity and inclusivity by meeting students where they are, supporting multiple learning styles and abilities, and fostering a learning environment aligned with Universal Design for Learning principles. Student evaluations of my teaching have been consistently positive, with an average score of 4.75/5 across the classes I have taught. Positive comments include “Yun made it a point to meet students where they were at, encouraging participation in ways that the class as a whole felt most comfortable. As a result, the semester in this course was enjoyable to where learning about policies and realworld politics have become a new interest personally as I progress through the program,” and “I have learned so much from Yun. Her dedication and care for her students were always present and apparent and she made the class a very pleasant and fruitful place.”
My combined training in social work and anthropology has prepared me to teach a wide range of courses, both foundational and advanced. I am particularly well-equipped to teach topics such as social welfare policies and programs, global social work, substance use services, qualitative and participatory research methods, social work theory, and critical theories in healthcare. By integrating my three core principles and creating an accessible, inclusive learning environment, I aim to support students in their professional or academic journey and inspire a lifelong commitment to critical thinking, learning, and social engagement.
So’Phelia Morrow
Social Work & Sociology
So’Phelia Morrow, MPH, MSW
University of Michigan School of Social Work | Department of Sociology 1080 South UniversityAvenue, B654,AnnArbor, MI 48109
Email: sopmarie@umich.edu | Office: (734) 763–2345 | Cell: (810) 964–7700
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5067-014X
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drso/
Theory, research, method, and practice interests
I am a sought-after expert for my research which broadly concerns exploring the relationship between social conditions (structural gendered racism) and Black women’s health. Specifically, exploring the relationship between wealth (debt) and Black women’s mental and physical health. I am also interested in understanding intimate partner violence as a social determinant of health, that is, how intimate partner violence is related to economic, financial, and housing inequality. I am further concerned with cultural explanations of intra-racial violence against Black women as they relate to Black women’s resiliency and Black men’s disempowerment. The qualitative methodologies I employ are grounded in standpoint theory and include phenomenology, autoethnography, and critical discourse analysis. My practice interests include social policy, policy advocacy, and evaluation.
Education and Training
Ph.D., Social Work and Sociology, Candidate Expected: April 2025 University of Michigan School of Social Work and Department of Sociology,AnnArbor
M.P.H., Health Behavior Health Education Graduated: December 2017 Specialization in Health Disparities University of Michigan School of Public Health,AnnArbor
M.S.W., Social Policy and Evaluation
Graduated: December 2017 University of Michigan School of Social Work,AnnArbor
B.S., Evolutionary Anthropology
Graduated: June 2013 University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, & Arts,AnnArbor
Grants and Awards
Internal
Principal Investigator, (In)Visible Violence: Exploring Black Women’s Lived Experiences of HiddenAbuse Center for Inequality Dynamics 2024 – 2025 Emerging Inequality Scholar Award
Stone Center for Inequality Dynamics
AmountAwarded: $3,000
Principal Investigator, (In)Visible Violence: Exploring Black Women’s Lived Experiences of HiddenAbuse Rackham Student Research Grant
University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School
AmountAwarded: $3,000
Scholarships, Fellowships, and Honors
The Editing Press AnnArbor, MI
Laura Bassi Scholarship Awarded: August 2024 - Noteworthy applicant recognition
Equality Now + The OpEd Project
NewYork, NewYork
2023 Public Voices Fellowship Awarded: June 2023
Association for Public PolicyAnalysis and Management Washington, D.C. APPAM Equity and Inclusion Student Fellowship Awarded:August 2021
University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School
AnnArbor, MI Scholar-Activist Award Awarded:April2019
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research
AnnArbor, MI Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research Diversity Award Awarded:April2018
University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School AnnArbor, MI Rackham Merit Fellowship Awarded: February 2018
Peer Reviewed Publications
1. Morrow, S. (2024). “But DidYou Die?”: Intimate PartnerViolence as a Social Determinant of Health.Affilia, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/08861099241271198
2. Morrow, S. (2024).Nowhereto turn:ABlack feminist autoethnography of interpersonal violence. Qualitative Social Work, 23(4), 667–681. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250231186755
3. Friedline, T., Morrow, S., Atkinson, D., Gracey, A., Johnson, J., Muntaqim, A., Wolfe, A. (2023). “There Is No Winning”: The Racialized Violence of Debt on Health and How Women Resist. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 1-27. doi:10.1017/S1742058X23000164
4. Friedline, T., Wood,A. K., & Morrow, S. (2022). Financial education as political education: a framework for targeting systems as sites of change. Journal of Community Practice, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2022.2140737
5. Friedline, T., Morrow, S., Oh, S., Klemm, T., & Kugiya, J. (2022). Banks as Racialized and Gendered Organizations: Interviews with Frontline Workers. Social Service Review, 96(3), 401–434. https://doi.org/10.1086/721145
6. Friedline, T., Franklin, T., Morrow, S., & Kugiya, J. (2020). The promises and perils of community benefits agreements: evidence from public comments to a large bank merger. Journal of Community Practice, 28(4), 337–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2020.1841703
o Included in the public record for the Feb. 6, 2020 hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, “Fake It Till They Make It: How Bad Actors Use Astroturfing to Manipulate Regulators, Disenfranchise Consumers and Subvert the Rulemaking Process”
7. Friedline, T., Chen, Z., & Morrow, S. (2020). Families’ Financial Stress & Well-Being: The Importance of theEconomy and EconomicEnvironments. Journal ofFamilyandEconomicIssues. doi:10.1007/s10834-02009694-9
8. Zhang, A. A., Chen, Z. B., Wang, K. P., Elliott, W., & Morrow, S. (2020). Association between Children’s Saving Account and Parent Rated Children’s Health: A Preliminary Study. Sociology Mind, 10, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.4236/sm.2020.101001
9. Zhang, A., Liu, C., Bornheimer, L. A., Solomon, P., Wang, K., & Morrow, S. (2019). The indirect effect of bullying on adolescent self-rated health through mental health:Agender specific pattern. Children andYouth Services Review, 104, 104385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104385
Manuscripts Under Review
1. Morrow, S., “The Illusion of Liberation through Domination: A Content Analysis of Black Gender Politics and Gender Relations in Black Panther” (Revise & Resubmit). Feminist Media Studies
Book Reviews
1. Morrow, S. (2021). Book Review: The Black Reproductive: Unfree Labor and Insurgent Motherhood By Sara Clarke Kaplan. Gender & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/08912432211065121
Minor Publications
Op-Ed Articles
1. Morrow, S. (2024, June 26). Hot summer in the city: Flint native reflects on home during the sweltering heat wave. Flintside. https://www.flintside.com/inthenews/sophelia-morrow-reflects-on-home.aspx
2. Morrow, S. (2024,April 24). Guaranteed Income Can Be a Lifeline for DomesticAbuse Survivors. NextCity. https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/guaranteed-income-can-be-a-lifeline-for-domestic-abuse-survivors
3. Morrow, S. (2024, March 23). Black Women and Endometriosis by So’Phelia Morrow, MPH, MSWVISIBLE Magazine. VISIBLE Magazine. https://visiblemagazine.com/black-women-and-endometriosis/
4. Morrow, S. (2024, February 28). Black HAIRStory Month. New York Amsterdam News. https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2024/02/29/black-hairstory-month/ 5. Morrow, S. (2024, January 25). The squirrel and the butterfly. New York Amsterdam News. https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2024/01/25/the-squirrel-and-the-butterfly/ 6. Morrow, S. (2023, December 22). When the abuser wears a mask by So’Phelia Morrow, MPH, MSWVISIBLE Magazine. VISIBLE Magazine. https://visiblemagazine.com/when-the-abuser-wears-a-mask/
7. Morrow, S. (2023, August 28). So’Phelia Morrow: We must expand the definition of domestic violence to includeemotionalabuse. ChicagoTribune.https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinionemotional-abuse-domestic-violence-depp-heard-state-laws-20230828-hotrcieiivexhhmhx5zjj67qz4story.html
8. Friedline, T., & Morrow, S. (2021, January 27). To Stop the Predatory Burden of Student Loan Debt, Biden Must Cancel It All. Ms. Magazine. https://msmagazine.com/2021/01/27/cancel-student-loan-debt-bidenblack-women-college/
Interviews
1. Stewart, E. (2021, March 25). Student debt is a dilemma with no one-size-fits-all solution. Vox. https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22324143/student-debt-forgiveness-loan-cancellation-economy
Media Appearances
1. Student Loan Forgiveness Discussion Panelist. https://www.newsy.com/series/morning-rush/. “Morning Rush.” May 10, 2022.
Invited to discuss research on and personal experiences with debt and how this influences the political discourse surrounding student loan forgiveness on the “School Daze” segment of the “Morning Show” on NEWSY.
Conferences and Presentations
National Conferences
1. Morrow, S., Friedline, T. (2022). Debt Takes overYour Mind:AQualitative Exploration ofWomen and Debt. Paper presented at the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR) Annual Conference, Washington, D.C. (National Conference)
2. Morrow, S. (2021). Fundamental Cause Theory: Addressing Structural Racism in Health. Structured discussion facilitated at Association for Women in Psychology (AWP)Annual Conference, Virtual. (National Conference)
International Conferences
1. Morrow, S. (2023). On the Road Again: A Black Feminist Autoethnography of Interpersonal Violence Experienced by Black Women. Paper presented at the International Symposium on Autoethnography and Narrative (ISAN)Annual Conference, Virtual. (International Conference)
Research and Evaluation Experience
Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility Intern May 2024 – ongoing Poverty Solutions Center AnnArbor, MI
• Assist with evaluation of an American Relief Plan Rescue-funded community violence coalition of multiple non-profit community organizations whose various intervention strategies are aimed at reducing gun violence in the city of Detroit, MI
• Develop separate documents (statement of consent, interview protocol, etc.) for focus group facilitation with residents of designated zones and staff of interventions
Rackham Doctoral Intern Fellow
January 2024 –April 2024 Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD) AnnArbor, MI
• Assisted with My Future Fund a children's savings account program that aims to support children and their families as they plan and save for future college and career training
• Conducted literature review to find best practices for financial literacy education programs
• Surveyed the Midwest landscape to identify regional children savings accounts programs
• Met with community organizations and financial institutions in Washtenaw County to understand the services and products available to families
• Created infographic of best practices for financial literacy education programs to be shared with stakeholders
National Death Index (NDI) Coder
January 2023 – November 2023 University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) AnnArbor, MI
• Coded death certificates received from NDI using internal processes to identify deceased study subjects of Monitoring the Future (MTF), a widely known longitudinal, epidemiological study
• Conductedgenealogical researchusing multiplesources, including an internal database,Accurint, apublic records system, and online obituaries to identify deceased study subjects
Graduate Student ResearchAssistant June 2020 – May 2022
University of Michigan School of Social Work AnnArbor, MI
PI: Dr. Terri Friedline
Exploring Debt and Women’s Health
Awarded: $14,920
• Recruited Black, Indigenous, and Latina women through social media to participate in a study based on women of color’s experiences with debt and how it affected their mental and physical health
• Conducted approximately 15 qualitative interviews with women of color using narrative storytelling
• Coded and analyzed 30+ hours of transcripts usingATLAS.ti coding software
• Assisted with preparation of manuscript to be submitted to an academic journal
Program EvaluationAssistant January2017 –December2017 Curtis Center Program Evaluation Group (CCPEG) AnnArbor, MI
• Provided formative and summative evaluation services for community-based clientele to improve upon programs’effectiveness and service delivery
• Collected data through literature reviews of evidence- and practice-based research to inform the programs of community-based clientele
• Assisted in the development of logic models, evaluation plans, and grant reports
• Disseminated information in the form of infographics and dashboards utilizing data visualization principles
Graduate Research Assistant May2016 – December2016 University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) AnnArbor, MI
• Analyzed race-related vigilance data through coding using STATAstatistical software
• Performed regression analyses and descriptive statistics for race-related vigilance data
• Conducted literature reviews regarding topics of race and health
• Participated in Inter-consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) courses in Linear Regression II and Race, Ethnicity, and Quantitative Methods
Grant Writer
January 2016 –April 2016
Wolverine Human Services Detroit, MI
• Developed grant along with 3 other group members for a community-based organization in Detroit, MI, focused on increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables and decreasing social isolation among older adults
Teaching Experience
Guest Lecturer:
School of Social Work, University of Missouri FA2020
• Social Work 7720: Foundations of Human Behavior
Primary Instructor:
School of Social Work, University of Michigan
SW600-005: Behavioral, Psychosocial, and EcologicalAspects of Health, Mental Health, and Disease FA2021
SW600-011: Behavioral, Psychosocial,and EcologicalAspects ofHealth,MentalHealth,and Disease WN2022
Mentorship:
Student Opportunities for AIDS/HIV Research (SOAR)
December2021 –December2022 University of Michigan
Relevant Experience and Training ProgramAssistant May 2022 – September 2022 Partnerships for Access, Community, and Excellence (PACE) AnnArbor, MI
• Assisted in the development and implementation of programming for Rackham Merit Fellows including community building activities
• Facilitated workshops and write-ins for current Rackham Merit Fellows
• Maintained program participant information for the Rackham Merit Fellowship Connection
Graduate Student ServicesAssistant
January2018 –August 2018
Michigan Humanities Emerging Research Scholars Program (MICHHERS) AnnArbor, MI
• Assisted in managing a pipeline program designed to increase the number of underrepresented students in doctoral studies in Humanities at the University of Michigan
• Analyzed 2017 program data to develop an internal evaluation report to be used in future disseminations of results
BASICS/IMEP Coordinator September2015 –July 2016
Wolverine Wellness Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) AnnArbor, MI
• Counseled college students one-on-one through brief interventions for being charged as a minor in possession of alcohol or marijuana
• Utilized Motivational Interviewing (MI) to work with students who were resistant to talking about the experience that led them to the program
• Referred students to the appropriate resources regarding mental health, recovery, or alternatives to drinking and smoking cannabis
APVendor Management Associate/Project Team Lead
December2014 –August 2015
University of Michigan Shared Services Center (SSC)
AnnArbor, MI
• Developed and led presentations to audiences consisting of faculty and staff of the University of Michigan regarding federal tax policies that affected the conduct of business transactions
• Managed daily vendor additions, reactivations, and updates in vendor database to ensure that vendors’ profiles were updated for timely payment of goods or services rendered
• Evaluated and responded to complaints, disputes, and inquiries submitted by faculty, staff, and vendors to maintain positive relations between the University of Michigan and vendors
• Collected hundreds of updated federal tax forms for foreign vendors in the database before the end of the appointed deadline
Organizational Memberships
American Sociological Association
Sections
- Race, Gender, and Class
- Sociological Practice and Public Sociology
- Sociology of Body and Embodiment
American Psychological Association Association for Women in Psychology Society for Social Work Research
Affiliations
Institute for Research on Women and Gender
Student Organizations
Faculty Allies for Diversity Committee (FADC) Representative September 2022 –April 2023
Social Work Doctoral Student Organization (DSO) AnnArbor, MI
• Collaborate with the Faculty Allies for Diversity Committee at the University of Michigan School of Social Work to create programming and provide outreach to doctoral students
External Affairs Agent September 2017 – December 2017
Public Health Students of African Descent (PHSAD) AnnArbor, MI
• Established, fostered, and maintained collaborative relationships between PHSAD and departments and organizations external to the University of Michigan School of Public Health
Social Media and Marketing Chair September 2016 –April 2017
Public Health Students of African Descent (PHSAD) AnnArbor, MI
• PromotedandadvertisedPHSADthroughmultiplesocialmediaplatformsincludingTwitterandFacebook
Social Media Co-Coordinator March 2016 –April 2017
Researchers Expanding Lay Audience Teaching and Education (R.E.L.A.T.E.) AnnArbor, MI
• Created social media posts focused on articles and topics about science communication and tailoring talks to different public audiences
• Utilized social media management platforms such as Buffer to streamline posts to multiple platforms simultaneously including Facebook and Twitter
• Uploaded videos to the R.E.L.A.T.E. YouTube channel of science researchers giving a brief overview of their research utilizing the skills learned in the intensive summer workshops conducted by R.E.L.A.T.E.
Certificates and Licenses
Certificates
Certificate in Disability, Inclusion, and Accessible Design November 2021
University of Michigan School of Social Work AnnArbor, MI
Licenses
Master Social Work Limited License #6801102212 in the State of Michigan (inactive) March 2018
State of Michigan Lansing, MI
ResearchAgenda
My research agenda centers the lived experiences of Black women, encompassing multiple theoretical frameworks and methodologies, informed by critical studies and standpoint feminism. This includes my use of narrative inquiry, phenomenology, Black feminist autoethnography, and critical discourseanalysis. My researchagendafocuses on(1)racial andgenderinequalities related to Black women’s physical, mental, and financial health; (2) critical scholarship in culture, race, gender, and sexuality; (3) media, communication, and digital space; and (4) public scholarship and policy advocacy.
One place this work intersects is in my dissertation, Killing Us Softly: Intimate Partner Violence and the Forced Martyrdom of Black Women, which critically examines the ways in which sociocultural messages related to Black men’s disempowerment and Black women’s resiliency contribute to violence against Black women. I utilize a transdisciplinary, multi-method approach to understand how these sociocultural messages manifest in Black women’s daily lives through indepth interviews and an analysis of tweets from X/formerly Twitter related to the shooting of rapper and hip-hop artist Megan Thee Stallion by rapper Tory Lanez.
1. Racial and Gender Inequities in Physical, Mental, and Financial Health
We know comparatively little of the lived experiences that Black women victim-survivors may share. irrespective of socioeconomic status. My research begins to fill this gap by exploring how sociocultural messages about Blackmen’s disempowerment and Blackwomen’s resiliencyoperate in tandem for Black women-victim survivors irrespective of socioeconomic status. The social determinants of health framework guides my philosophical approach to understanding violence against Black women, specifically intimate partner violence (IPV), as a public health crisis, and explores the relationship to racial and gender inequalities in physical, mental, and financial health.
In my published manuscript for Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work, entitled ‘‘“But Did You Die?”: Intimate Partner Violence as a Social Determinant of Health,’’ I apply fundamental cause theory to argue that IPV is a social determinant of health contributing to racial and gender inequities in health. My manuscript is the first to apply fundamental cause theory to an autoethnographic study of non-physical abuse, what I term ‘hidden abuse.’ My research also explores financial debt as (colonialist) violence. In a manuscript published in the Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, I interviewed Black, Indigenous, and Latinx/a/e women about their experiences with debt and how it has affected their mental health using narrative inquiry, a methodological approach with the goal of allowing the interviewee to take control of their story. This project included collaborating with Mothering Justice, a community organization in Detroit, Michigan focused on the needs of Black birthing parents.
2. Critical Scholarship in Culture, Race, Gender, and Sexuality
The sociopolitical position of Black women as enslaved women means that there is a lack of protection for them at the state, community, and intimate levels, leaving them vulnerable to violence. My research explores how sociocultural messages such as racial loyalty contributes to violence against Black women at all levels. Racial loyalty, when coupled with the strong Black woman trope. is dangerous because while the strong Black woman trope sends the message that Black women can endure violence, racial loyalty sends the message that Black women should endureviolence. Inmy workin Qualitative Social Work,Iexplorehowracial loyalty andthestrong
Black woman trope manifest for Black women experiencing forms of community violence, employing Black feminist autoethnography as a methodological approach to an autoethnographic case study of a road rage incident. In a manuscript I am preparing for Violence Against Women, I apply autoethnography to my personal experiences of narcissistic abuse, exploring how adoption of psychotherapeutic interventions has redefined the meaning of abuse from one of coercive control to an effect of a mental health illness, contributing to violence against Black women.
3. Media, Communication, and Digital Space
My dissertation research takes seriously violence against Black women as portrayed among social media and in important cultural films, while expanding on the concepts of racial loyalty and the strong Black woman trope. The first study of my dissertation makes use of critical discourse analysis to understand how racial loyalty and the strong Black woman trope appear in the violence discourseamongBlackTwitterusingtheshootingofrapperandhip-hopartistMeganTheeStallion as acasestudy. Iusetheshooting ofMeganTheeStallion as acasestudy becauseoftheprecedence of intimate partner violence experienced by celebrity Black women. Cultural explanations for violence against Black women have long been debated in public discourse and scholarship; mine is thefirst studyexplores howthis samediscoursemanifests among BlackTwitter.Ifurtherexplore the themes of racial loyalty and the strong Black woman in my manuscript under revision with Feminist Media Studies. Inthis study, Iuse critical discourseanalysis to exploreintra-racial gender politics as it relates to IPV, situated within the context of the film Black Panther. I combine Black feminist theorizing with cultural critique to show how debates about gender politics and gender violence among Black people are depicted in the film through the character Erik “Killmonger” Stevens. Journal editors have noted that the manuscript is “truly provocative.”
4. Public Scholarship and PolicyAdvocacy
My research agenda includes policy advocacy, balancing academic and public scholarship. I’ve written eight op-eds to date, such as on the results of our study interviewing Black, Indigenous, and Latina/x/e women about their experiences with debt, which appeared in Ms. Magazine and engaged a national audience on the issue of student loan debt. I’ve also written on a range of other topics related to Black women’s lived experiences including Black women and endometriosis, and Black hair care as Black health care. Some of my op-eds inspired my future research agenda. For example, I authored an op-ed in NextCity, arguing that to address racial and gender wealth inequality, we need more unconditional cash transfer programs to victim-survivors of IPV. I am now interested in understanding the relationship between cash transfer programs and the experience of IPV, especially in my hometown of Flint, Michigan.
Future Directions
As an interdisciplinary scholar, my research spans across multiple fields, including social work, psychology, women and gender studies, digital media, and Black studies. My research agenda will explore how victim-survivors define what joy, hope, happiness, and resilience means to them within the context of their experiences.Additionally, I’m interested in learning how Black women victim-survivors use technological resources in the form of online forums as forms of support, exploring the lived experiences of Black adolescent girls and their experiences with violence, and I’m particularly interested in exploring ways in which mobile apps can help reduce dating violence among adolescent Black girls.
Teaching Statement
There aretworelated principles thatinform my teaching philosophy: learning is a lifelong process, and anyone has the capacity to produce knowledge.
Myparentstaughtmethisearly.MymotherforexampletoldmeasachildthatIwould“gothrough some things as a Black girl.” In that one simple statement, she taught me intersectionality theory despite never having used the word or formally learned the theory. My father, who was older, took it upon himself to learn how to type on a computer despite his age. More than showing (teaching) me that you can always learn something new, he also showed (taught) me that you can unlearn something old. As bell hooks famously said, “culture is where the pedagogy is.” When you begin to understand that connections can be made anywhere, learning becomes much more fulfilling.
PedagogicalApproach – Equity-Focused Teaching
Because I wanted to be better prepared for teaching, I decided to take the PhD level Social Work Pedagogy course before I started teaching. In this course, we learned the equity-focused teaching strategies I now employ in my classroom, including making the classroom textbook free through theinstitutionallibrary;havingtheclassmaterials andresources availableaheadofclass;including a variety of individual, small, and large group discussions to provide students with different opportunities to collaborate, participate, and share ideas; being flexible with assignment due dates; incorporating various kinds of media (e.g., text, audio, video) into lesson plan and discussion activities; including text descriptions for pictures used in lesson materials; offering credit through various kinds of participation (i.e., not only by participating in class discussion) such as through active listening; and explicitly presenting the course expectations and objectives for the lesson. I am eager to advance my pedagogical training, expanding it to include equity-focused writing practices and how to implement them in the classroom.
One of the ways I engage students and create a fun, learning online environment is that I would have weekly icebreaker questions that students could answer in the chat. For example, one week I asked students to name their favorite childhood game (i.e., video, card, board). Equity-focused teaching includes encouraging students’ critical engagement with the course material while also recognizing their needs and meeting them where they are at. For example, one day late in the semester, I could sense that students were exhausted, so upon reflection, I ended class early so that theycould log off andrefocus.The appreciation of my humanisticapproach to teaching is reflected in the feedback: So'Phelia was a masterful facilitator for this course and really took the time to cultivate an environment where we could discuss and learn from each other. This semester was not easy for anyone, with the pandemic still very much ongoing, and I believe So'Phelia was the most supportive instructor I have had during this time
Therefore, my goal is to provide students with a supportive environment to encourage them to want to become lifelong knowledge producers. One way that I have accomplished this is by being passionate, making lectures engaging, relevant, and relatable. For instance, I use references to popular culture, including movies and music, in my lectures, and I talk about real-world experiences. I have been particularly encouraged by student feedback on my approach, such as this comment: “So'Phelia was very passionate, knowledgeable, and relatable. Her passion for
health social work encourages and draws your attention. The material in this class sounded the alarm on injustices, disparities, discrimination, biases, and other challenges the social work field must continue to fight against. I am more determined to be a change agent to fight against the injustices…”
Evaluations
– Vulnerability, Growth, and Flexibility
Teaching evaluations are an invaluable resource in my teaching practice. Therefore, I offer opportunities for students to provide feedback in mid-semester and at end-of-semester. The midsemester feedback allows me to implement any needed changes to the course to maintain a supportive learning environment for all students. For example, in my first semester of teaching, I taught Social Work 600: Behavioral, Psychosocial, and Ecological Aspects of Health, Mental Health, and Disease a class focused on public health in social work. Students felt that the course load was too heavy and that there were too many assignments. I first discussed this with my colleague who was teaching another section of the course. Her students also felt the same way. We then brought the students’concerns to the instructional design lead.Advocating for students while also preserving the integrity of the course, we reduced the number of assignments while also ensuring they fulfill the objectives set forth by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).
In my first semester of teaching, I struggled with navigating the new power dynamics of being an instructor versus a student. The same students in class seemed to dominate class discussions, but I hesitated to intervene. Unfortunately, this affected the learning environment for some students. The next semester, I had more confidence, and can now better navigate power dynamics between myselfand my students.Forexample, Ideveloped a community expectation,“Ifyoutakeupspace, give some back!” I can also firmly say in the moment, “I think we should give other folks a chance to speak,” or “I think we need to open the space for others.” Once I implemented these changes andsettheseexpectations atthebeginningofthesecondsemester,Ididnotstrugglewithmanaging space in the classroom.
Teaching as Mentoring
I recognize the importance of service for marginalized scholars in the academy. For example, I participated in the Student Opportunities for AIDS/HIV Research (SOAR), a two-year intensive academic and research mentoring experience for juniors and seniors at the University of Michigan. I would reach out and have meetings as needed with my mentee, checking in on their well-being, and still maintain this mentorship with them today. Further, I am intentional about sharing my experience with prospective students of color Some of these students have expressed to me how meeting with them clarified their decisions to attend graduate school. I will continue to learn how to be a better teacher as I grow in the classroom, and a better mentor as I support students in other spaces, such as research assistants.
Kari Sherwood Social Work and Psychology
Education
ABD
2022
2019
2016
2011
2006
Publications
Kari L. Sherwood, MS, MEd, MSW
Curriculum Vitae
(405) 258-6696 | karilynnsherwood@gmail.com Google Scholar | ORCID
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, Rackham Graduate School
Ph.D., Social Work and Psychology (Joint PhD Program in Social Work and Social Science)
Mentors: Matthew J. Smith, PhD; Henry M. Wellman, PhD, Shanna K. Kattari, PhD
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, Department of Psychology
M.S, Psychology (Developmental)
Mentor: Henry M. Wellman, PhD
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, School of Social Work
M.S.W., Social Work (Social Policy and Evaluation)
Mentors: Matthew J. Smith, PhD; Shanna K. Kattari, PhD
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, College of Education/Human Dev.
M.Ed., Special Education (Autism Spectrum Disorder)
Mentor: Brittany Farabee Joseph, M.Ed.
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, College of Education
M.S., Educational Leadership Studies (Higher Education)
Mentor: Kerri Kearney, PhD
Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK, College of Human Environmental Sciences
B.S., Human Development and Family Science (Child and Family Services)
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:
1. Sherwood, K., Smith, M. J., & Eldredge M. (2024). The need for technology-aided instruction and intervention policy for autistic youth. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 35(1), 54-64, https://doi.org/10.1177/10442073221150603
2. Sherwood, K., Smith, M. J., Ross, B., Johnson, J., Trautwein, A., Landau, M., & Hume, K. (2024). Implementing Virtual Interview Training for Transition-Age Youth: Practical Strategies for Educators. Intervention in School and Clinic, 59(4), 281-286, https://doi.org/10.1177/10534512231156879
3. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Genova, H., Ross, B., DaWalt, L., Bishop, L., Telfer, D., Brown, C., Sanchez, B., and Kallen, M. A. (2023). Psychometric properties of the mock interview rating scale for autistic transition-age youth. Frontiers in Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1235056
4. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Sung, C., Williams, E. G., Ross, B., Sharma, S., Sharma, A., Harrington, M., Brown, C., Telfer, D., Bond, J., Toda, S., Kearon, D., Morrow, S., Lovelace, T., Dababnah, S., Kattari, S. K., Magaña, S., Watkins, T., Liggett, C., Riddle, E., Smith, J. D., Hume, K., Dawkins, T., Baker-Ericzén, M., Eack, S. M., Sinco, B., Burke-Miller, J., Olsen, D., Elkins, J., Humm, L., & Steacy, C. (2023). Enhancing Pre-Employment Transition Services: A Type 1 Hybrid Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol for Evaluating WorkChat: A Virtual Workday among Autistic Transition-Age Youth. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 34, 101153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conctc.2023.101153
5. Danielson, E. C., Smith, M. J., Ross, B., Sherwood, K., Smith, J. D., Atkins, M., & Jordan, N. (2023). Implementation Preparation Costs of Virtual Interview Training in Pre-Employment Transition Services: A Budget Impact Analysis. Journal of Special Education Technology 39(1), 27-40, https://doi.org/10.1177/01626434231175372
6. Sherwood, K., Smith, M. J., Ross, B., Johnson, J., Harrington, M., Blajeski, S., Dawalt, L., Bishop, L., Smith, J. D. (2023). Mixed Methods Implementation Evaluation of Virtual Interview Training for Transition-Age Autistic Youth in Pre-Employment Transition Services. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 58(2), 139-154, https://doi.org/10.3233/JVR-230004
7. Genova, H., Kallen, M., Sherwood, K., Dawalt, L., Bishop, L., & Smith, M.J. (2023). Development and psychometric properties of self-reported job interview skills and job interview anxiety for autistic transition-age youth. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, preprint, https://doi.org/10.3233/JVR-230009
8. Smith, M. J., Van Ryzin, M., Jordan, N., Atkins, M., Bornheimer, L., Sherwood, K., Smith, J. D. (2023). Virtual Job Interview Training: A Dose Response to Improve Employment for Transition-Age Youth with Disabilities. Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals, 47(2), https://doi.org/10.1177/21651434231160532
9. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Ross, B., Oulvey, E. A., Monahan, J. A., Sipovic, J. E., Atkins, M. S., Danielson, E. C., Jordan, N., & Smith, J. D. (2022). Scaling Out Virtual Interview Training for Transition-Age Youth: A QuasiExperimental Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Study. Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals, 45(4), 213-227, https://doi.org/10.1177/21651434221081273
10. Sherwood, K. & Kattari, S. (2021). Reducing Ableism in Social Work Education Through Universal Design for Learning and Policy. Journal of Social Work Education, 59(1), 119-132, https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2021.1997686
11. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Blajeski, S., Ross, B., Smith, J. D., Jordan, N., DaWalt, L., Bishop, L., & Atkins, M. (2021). Job Interview and Vocational Outcomes Among Transition-Age Youth Receiving Special Education PreEmployment Transition Services. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 59(5): 405–421. https://doi.org/10.1352/1934-9556-59.5.405
12. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Ross, B., Smith, J. D., Dawalt, L., Bishop, L., Humm, L., Elkins, J., & Steacy, C. (2021). Virtual Interview Training for Autistic Transition Age Youth: A Randomized Controlled Feasibility and Effectiveness Trial. Autism: International Journal of Research and Practice, 25(6), 1536-1552. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361321989928
13. Williams, E., Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Lovelace, T., & Bishop, L. (2021). Brief Report: Initial Evidence of Depressive Symptom Disparities among Black and White Transition Age Autistic Youth. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05242-y
14. Smith, M. J., Smith, J. D., Jordan, N., Sherwood, K., McRobert, E., Ross, B., Oulvey, E. A., & Atkins, M. (2021). Virtual Reality Job Interview Training in Transition Services: Results of a Single-Arm, Non-controlled EffectivenessImplementation Hybrid Trial. Journal of Special Education Technology, 36(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0162643420960093
15. Smith, M. J., Pinto, R. M., Dawalt, L., Smith, J. D., Sherwood, K., Miles, R., Taylor, J., Hume, K., Dawkins, T., Baker-Ericzen, M., Frazier, T., Humm, L., & Steacy, C. (2020). Using community-engaged methods to adapt virtual reality job-interview training for transition-age youth on the autism spectrum. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 71, 101498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2019.101498
Manuscripts Under Review:
1. Williams, E., Smith, M.J., Mitchell, J., Sung, C., Sherwood, K., Dababnah, S., Magaña, S., Olsen, D., Elkins, J., Humm, L., & Steacy, C. (under review). The Development and Utilization of a Diversity Advisory Board in an Intervention to Support Social Skill Development for Autistic Transition-Aged Youth. Autism.
2. Smith, M. J., Merle, J., Baker-Ericzen, M., Sherwood, K., Bornheimer, L., Ross, B., Harrington, M., Sharma, A., Brown, C. C., Gordon, Jr., T., Telfer, D., Reese, J., Hirst, J., Oulvey, E. A., Dignadice, V., Williams, E., Magana, S., Hume, K., Sung, C., Burke-Miller, J., & Smith, J. D. (under review). A Type 1 Hybrid Multi-Site Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol for Evaluating Virtual Interview Training Among Autistic Transition-Age Youth. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications.
Book Chapters:
1. Sherwood, K., Kattari, S. K., & Wetmur, A. (2023). Sexuality, hearing loss, and d/Deaf individuals. In Kattari, S. K. (Ed.) Exploring sexuality and disability. New York, NY: Routledge.
2. Kattari, S. K., Sherwood, K., Gross, E. B., & Hostetter, C. R. (2023). Infinity and rainbows: Supporting the sexuality of neurodivergent people. In Kattari, S. K. (Ed.) Exploring sexuality and disability. New York, NY: Routledge.
3. Kattari, S. K., & Sherwood, K. (2023). Access isn’t optional: Sexuality and intellectual/developmental disabilities. In Kattari, S. K. (Ed.) Exploring sexuality and disability. New York, NY: Routledge.
Technical Reports and Manuals:
1. Sharma, A., Sherwood, K., Harrington, M., Ross, B., & Smith, M. J. (2024). Virtual Interview Training for Transition-Age Youth: Implementation Manual. Level Up: Employment Skills Simulation Lab. University of Michigan.
2. Sharma, A., Sherwood, K., Harrington, M., Ross, B., & Smith, M. J. (2024). Work Chat: A Virtual Workday: Implementation Manual. Level Up: Employment Skills Simulation Lab. University of Michigan.
3. Sherwood, K. (2020). Evidence-Based Practice for Pre-Employment Transition Services. Created as part of the MILEND Fellowship requirements.
4. Sherwood, K. (2019). Finding Supplemental Funding for Special Health Care Needs in Michigan. A reference for families, created as part of the MI-LEND Fellowship requirements.
5. Sherwood, K. & Smith M. J. (2019). The Autism Mock Interview Rating Scale (A-MIRS). Level Up: Employment Skills Simulation Lab. University of Michigan.
6. Sherwood, K. & Kattari, S. K. (2019). Universal Design for Learning: What is it and why do we need it. A reference guide for University of Michigan faculty.
Presentations
Conference Symposia, Paper, Workshop, & Roundtable Presentations
1. Sherwood, K. & Smith, M. J. (2024). Prevalence and Experiences of Autistic Microaggressions in the Workplace Illinois Center for Transition and Work Symposium, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
2. White, L., Sherwood, K., Walsh-Bailey, C., & Weaver, A. (2024). Social Workers Harnessing Implementation Science Frameworks and Community Engaged Research and Practice to Build Solutions for Health Equity [Workshop]. Society for Social Work and Research conference, Washington DC.
3. Sherwood, K. & Smith, M. J. (2023) Evaluation of Virtual Interview Training for Transition-Age Autistic Youth on Twelve Social Performance Domains. International Society for Autism Research annual meeting, Stockholm.
4. Genova, H., Sung, C., Sherwood, K., Arora, A., Elsayed, H., & Smith, M. J. (2022). Transition-age autistic youth: Are we meeting their needs? [Special Interest Group]. International Society for Autism Research annual meeting, Austin.
5. Smith, M. J. & Sherwood, K., Ross, B., Oulvey, E. A., Atkins, M. S., Danielson, E., Jordan, N., & Smith, J. D. (2022). Scale Out Evaluation of Virtual Interview Training in Pre-Employment Transition Services. Division on Career Development and Transition, Council for Exceptional Children conference.
6. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Ross, B., Smith, J. D., Dawalt, L., & Bishop, L. (2022). Virtual Interview Training for Transition-Age Autistic Youth: A Randomized Controlled Feasibility and Initial Effectiveness trial. Division on Career Development and Transition, Council for Exceptional Children conference.
7. Smith, M. J. & Sherwood, K. (2022). Virtual Job Interviewing Training: Community Partners, Teaching Practices and Students Getting Jobs. [Workshop]. 82nd Annual Michigan Council for Exceptional Children conference, virtual.
8. Genova, H., Sung, C., Sherwood K & Smith, M. J. (2021). Transition-age autistic youth: Are we meeting their needs? [Special Interest Group] International Society for Autism Research annual meeting, virtual.
9. Sherwood, K. (Chair), Smith, M. J., Ross, B., Johnson, J., Harrington, M., Blajeski, S., Dawalt, L., Bishop, L., & Smith, J.D. (2021). Mixed-Methods Implementation Evaluation of Virtual Interview Training for Transition-Age Autistic Youth in Pre-Employment Transition Services [Panel]. International Society for Autism Research annual meeting, virtual.
10. Sherwood, K., Smith, M. J., Ross, B., Johnson, J., Harrington, M., Blajeski, S., Dawalt, L., Bishop, L., & Smith, J. D. (2021). Mixed-Methods Implementation Evaluation of Virtual Interview Training for Transition-Age Autistic Youth in Pre-Employment Transition Services [Symposium]. Gatlinburg conference, virtual.
11. Sherwood, K., Kallen, M., Genova, H., Bishop, L., Dawalt, L., Smith, J. D., Harrington, M., Wellman, H., & Smith, M. J. (2021). Initial Validation and Correlates of a Novel Measure of Job Interview Skills for Autistic Transition-Aged Youth. Society for Social Work and Research conference, virtual.
12. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Ross, B., Smith J. D., Dawalt, L., Bishop, L., Humm, L., Elkins, J., & Steacy, C. (2021). Virtual Interview Training for Autistic Transition-Age Youth: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Society for Social Work and Research conference, virtual.
13. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Smith, J. D., Jordan, N., & Atkins, M. (2020). Results of an Open Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Interview Training in Transition Age Autistic Youth. International Society for Autism Research annual meeting, Seattle [cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic].
14. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Smith, J. D., Jordan, N., & Atkins, M. (2020). Results of an Open Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness and Implementation of Virtual Reality Job Interview Training in n=279 Transition Age Youth with Educational Disabilities [symposium], American Educational Research Association annual meeting, San Francisco.
15. Sherwood, K. (2020). Job interviewing and vocational outcomes among transition-age youth with educational disabilities. Michigan Council for Exceptional Children conference. Grand Rapids.
16. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Smith, J. D., Jordan, N., & Atkins, M. (2020). Employment and Implementation Outcomes for Delivering a School-based Virtual Reality Job Interview Training Tool to Transition-Age Youth with Educational Disabilities. Society for Social Work and Research conference, Washington, DC.
17. Smith, M. J., Pinto, R. M., Dawalt. L., Smith, J. D., Sherwood, K., Miles, R., Taylor. J. L., Hume, K., Dawkins, T., Baker-Ericzen, M., Frazier, T., Humm, L., & Steacy, C. (2019). Adapting virtual reality job interview training for transition-age youth on the autism spectrum. Society of Social Work and Research conference. San Francisco.
18. Solomon, R., Sherwood, K., & Zunk, C. Oral Presentation at the 2015 Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence conference, Columbus.
Poster Presentations
1. Sherwood, K. & Smith, MJ. (2024). Prevalence and Experiences of Autistic Microaggressions in the Workplace. International Society for Autism Research annual meeting, Melbourne, Australia.
2. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Genova, H., Ross, B., DaWalt, L., Bishop, L., Telfer, D., Brown, C., Sanchez, B., & Kallen, M. A. (2024). Psychometric Properties of the Mock Interview Rating Scale for Autistic Transition-Age Youth International Society for Autism Research annual meeting, Melbourne, Australia.
3. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Sung, C., Williams, E. G., Ross, B., Sharma, S., Sharma, A., Harrington, M., Brown, C., Telfer, D., Bond, J., Toda, S., Kearon, D., Morrow, S., Lovelace, T., Dababnah, S., Kattari, S. K., Magaña, S., Watkins, T., Liggett, C., Riddle, E., Smith, J. D., Hume, K., Dawkins, T., Baker-Ericzén, M., Eack, S. M., Sinco, B., Burke-Miller, J., Olsen, D., Elkins, J., Humm, L., & Steacy, C. (2024). Randomized Controlled Trial of Workchat: A Virtual Workday, Preliminary Findings. International Society for Autism Research annual meeting, Melbourne, Australia.
4. Sherwood, K. & Smith, M. J. (2024). Prevalence and Experiences of Autistic Microaggressions in the Workplace. Illinois Center for Transition and Work Symposium, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
5. Smith, M. J. & Sherwood, K. (2023). Comparing the Effectiveness of Two Virtual Job Interview Interventions: Community Adaptation Matters. International Society for Autism Research annual meeting, Stockholm.
6. Myszko, Z., Botticello, A., Maronna, B., Murphy, L., Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., & Genova, H. M. (2021). Parental Perspectives of the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Young Adults with Autism: A Pilot Study. International Neuropsychological Society conference, San Diego.
7. Smith, M. J., Sherwood, K., Blajeski, S., Smith, J. D., Jordan, N., Ross, B., Smith Dawalt, L., Bishop, L., & Atkins, M. (2020). Job interviewing and vocational outcomes among autistic youth. International Society for Autism Research annual meeting, Seattle [canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic].
8. Sherwood, K. (2020). Evidence-Based Practice for Pre-Employment Transition Services. Michigan Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) meeting, Michigan.
9. Sherwood, K, Smith, M. J., & Dawalt, L. (2020). Preliminary outcomes in transition-age youth with autism spectrum disorders engaged in a newly adapted virtual interview tool. Society for Social Work and Research conference, Washington DC.
10. Sherwood, K. Finding Supplemental Funding for Special Health Care Needs in Michigan. Poster presentation at the 2019 MI-LEND Family Resource Project Symposium. West Bloomfield MI, November.
11. Smith, M. J., Pinto, R. M., Dawalt, L., Smith, J. D., Sherwood, K., Miles, R., Taylor. J. L., Hume, K., Dawkins, T., Baker-Ericzen, M., Frazier, T., Humm, L., & Steacy, C. Adapted virtual interview training for transition-age youth with autism reduces interview anxiety. Poster presentation at the 2019 International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) Conference. Montreal, May.
12. Sherwood, K Adapting virtual reality job interview training for transition-age youth on the autism spectrum. Poster presentation at the 2019 UM School of Social Work Student Learning Symposium. Ann Arbor, March.
13. Sherwood, K Eliminating Ableism in Higher Education with Universal Design for Learning. Poster presentation at the 2019 UM School of Social Work Student Learning Symposium. Ann Arbor, March.
