Annual scholarship breakfast for alumni and friends raises $102,000
"How
we think about our social reality has everything to do with how we act on that
reality. At the end of the day, action is thought’s greatest gift."
With
those insightful words, Eddie Uehara, Professor and Ballmer Endowed Dean in
Social Work, welcomed nearly 250 alumni and guests to the 5th Annual
Scholarship Breakfast on March 18. The event raised about $102,000 for
need-based scholarships to assist future MSW students.
This
year’s keynote speaker was Eric Liu, author, educator and founder of Citizen
University. Liu shared his passion for creating a nation of civic leaders,
noting in his remarks that “we are all better off when we are all better off…. When
other people start doing better—economically,
emotionally, psychologically, civically—you do better, too.” Liu shared pragmatic tools that anyone can employ
to become a more effective citizen.
Vaughnetta
J. Barton (MSW ’97), who leads the School’s Communities in Action initiative, emceed
the event. Sponsors included Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Era Living,
Seattle Children’s Hospital, Regence BlueShield and Casey Family Programs.
Spotlight on giving
Alumni gift helps Cambodians treat survivors of sex trafficking
In
2004, the School of Social Work began a partnership with
Cambodia’s Royal
University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), which continues to provide
graduate-level
training to Cambodian social workers who are determined to rebuild their
war-torn country. Recently, a generous gift from School alumna and
licensed
clinical social worker Martha Moyer (MSW ’69) (photo, center) and her
husband, George (MBA '70), established a continuing education course
at RUPP that focuses on Cambodians who work with survivors of sex
trafficking.
One
of Asia’s poorest nations, Cambodia has a sex trade industry that is
growing at
an alarming rate. UNICEF estimates that 40,000 to 100,000 individuals
are caught
up in the nation’s sex industry; children account for about one-third of
that
figure. The Moyers' gift will provide scholarships for up to 20 staff
members of organizations that work with sex-traffic survivors to attend a
semester-long course at RUPP. “Many
local nongovernmental organizations are operating on a shoestring,”
explains the partnership's director and social work professor Tracy Harachi: “This donation will allow staff
from organizations around Cambodia to take advantage of a learning opportunity
that would not have happened otherwise.”
School and alumni updates
School establishes center for healthy aging, one of five in the nation
By the year 2030, nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population will be 65
or older, according to the Pew Research Center. To prepare for this aging
population, the School of Social Work was selected to be the site of a center
focused on geriatric research, training and the integration of health-related
services to older adults. It is one of only five such centers nationwide.
Called the Healthy Generations Hartford Center of Excellence in
Geriatric Social Work, the center will tackle multigenerational issues
affecting elderly Americans and their caretakers, and will also develop
curriculum materials for students and practitioners. The center is named for
its funder, John A. Hartford Foundation, and chosen by the Gerontological
Society of America. Read more.
Alumna develops mental health survey that aids refugees
Refugees
coming to the United States from strife-torn countries often struggle with nightmares, depression or PTSD, but
cultural stigmas, language barriers and other issues make it difficult for them
to seek help. Now, a new tool developed by School alumna Beth Farmer (MSW '08),
program director at Lutheran Community Services, helps screen for mental health
problems before they become more serious.
Working
with Seattle and King County public health agencies and other organizations,
Farmer created a 15-question survey written in simple, effective and culturally
correct language. King County uses the survey to screen all new
refugees, and plans are underway to roll out the screening tool statewide. Farmer has received
requests for information on the screening tool from around the world,
including Hong Kong, Germany and Australia. Learn more about Farmer’s survey in this KUOW interview.
Research and training grants underscore expertise in social health and well-being
- Allen Family Foundation awards three-year grant to West Coast Poverty Center Dr.
Jennifer Romich and the West Coast Poverty Center received a three-year
$270,000 grant from The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. The funds will help
strengthen regional capacity to understand and address issues of poverty and
inequality. The award will also help launch collaborative research projects and
support the continuation of academic-practitioner roundtables.
- IWRI attracts health research training opportunities in New Zealand Dr. Karina Walters and colleagues at the Indigenous
Welfare Research Institute received $268,204 from the National Institutes of
Health for an international research training program known as the Mahina
Project. The grant enables undergraduate, graduate and medical students from
indigenous populations at the University of Washington and University of Hawaii
to attend a 12-week health research training course in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Grantees must be partnering with or living in indigenous communities or
families. The University of Auckland is the third university partnering on this
project.
- Program focused on childhood weight gain receives foundation grant Dr. Rona Levy and the Behavioral Medicine Research
Group received $229,396 from the Healthy Partners Research Foundation to test whether
telephone follow-up by pediatricians affects the rate of weight gain in
children.
- SDRG research acumen attracts diverse grants The School’s Social Development Research Group was awarded more than $408,000
to continue work on the International Youth Development Project. The funds will
be used to resurvey, at age 24, young adults who were interviewed a decade
earlier for the study. A grant for nearly $92,000
from the Providence Center for Outcomes Research and Education (CORE) will allow staff to conduct interviews
related to the Oregon Health Study. The government of Manitoba awarded SDRG an $82,332 grant to provide training and technical
assistance for the rollout of the Communities That Care program in the
Canadian province.
Awards and accolades
Amnon Shoenfeld honored for mental health leadership with 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award
Amnon
Shoenfeld
(MSW ’79) is the recipient of the 2014 School of Social Work
Distinguished Alumni
Award. A passionate and dedicated champion for individuals with mental
illness or substance abuse issues, Shoenfeld recently retired as
director of
the King County Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services
Division,
where he worked for more than 30 years. Under his leadership, King
County implemented a range of programs and services to connect those in
the criminal justice system with unmet mental health or substance abuse
needs with treatment, housing and other support services. Those
receiving services are often able to reduce their incarceration time and
experience a more successful re-entry into the community. Read the full story.
Please celebrate with us. Join
Amnon Shoenfeld to celebrate his selection as the School’s 2014
distinguished alumnus at a special reception preceding our graduation
ceremony at the Alaska Airlines Arena in the Hec Edmundson Pavilion on
the UW campus. The reception is on June 12 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the
pavilion’s Founders Club. Please RSVP by sending an email to Greg Ross or by calling 206-221-7735.
Michael Kilmer recognized with inaugural Early Career Achievement Award
Michael
Kilmer (MSW ’04) is the first recipient of the School’s Early Career
Achievement Award. Inaugurated this year, the award recognizes alumni who, within 12
years of receiving their last degree from the School of Social Work, are
carrying out innovative work, demonstrating influence in their field and making
a notable impact on the social work profession.
For
the past 10 years, Kilmer has held supervisory positions at the U.S. Department
of Veterans Affairs. Currently he is chief consultant of care management and
social work services at the Veterans Health Administration in Washington, D.C.,
which is the country’s largest integrated health care system. There, he supervises
social work services provided by nearly 11,000 social workers as well as more
than 1,000 social work student placements. Read the full story.
Please celebrate with us. Join
Michael
Kilmer to celebrate his selection as the School’s early career
achievement award recipient at a special reception preceding our
graduation
ceremony at the Alaska Airlines Arena in the Hec Edmundson Pavilion on
the UW campus. The reception is on June 12 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the
pavilion’s Founders Club. Please RSVP by sending an email to Greg Ross or by calling 206-221-7735.
Taryn Lindhorst receives award for palliative care research and education
Carol LaMare Associate Professor Taryn
Lindhorst received the 2014 Award of Excellence
in Education and Research from the Social Work Hospice & Palliative Care
Network. Nominated by her peers, Lindhorst was cited for her outstanding
leadership and ongoing commitment to providing the highest level of scholarship
to support the seriously ill, dying or bereaved. Lindhorst supervises the
School’s Carol LaMare Scholars Program, which awards scholarships to students
and faculty who specialize in oncology social work or palliative care.
Alumna receives inaugural community award for service to women and children
On March 20, Camie Goldhammer
(MSW '06) received the first Libin Egal Spirit Award from Seattle’s Open Arms
Perinatal Services, which provides community-based
support for women through
pregnancy and birth. The award, to be given each spring to a community
member,
was named in honor of Open Arms member and doula Libin Egal, who died
this year. Another School alumna, Sheila Capestany (MSW '07; MPH '08),
currently serves as Open
Arms’ executive director, where she brings more than 20 years’
experience in
nonprofit leadership, development and strategic planning. Established in
1997,
Open Arms has a strong community following, especially among Somali and
Latina
women. Its outreach doula program was the first in the country to
achieve
national accreditation.
Biennial report receives top communications award at CASE conference
Luminaries: Profiles in Social
Innovation, the School’s 2011-12
biennial report produced by the School's Office of Advancement and Communications Director Bruce Betz took
gold in the “Fundraising, Special Event & Other Communications” category from
the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. The award recognizes
excellence in marketing and communications among more than 130 universities and
colleges in 12 states and provinces in the Pacific Northwest and Western
Canada.
In the news
Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large commends Communities That Care initiative
Communities That Care is
an innovative community-centered program created by the
School-affiliated Social
Development Research Group to improve the futures of young people and
their families. Used successfully in cities around the country, the
prevention program was recently launched in
central and southeast Seattle. In a Jan. 29 column in The Seattle Times, columnist Jerry Large
commended the research group for creating a program that inspires entire
communities to take ownership of their needs and address them in systematic,
research-tested ways. According to Large, “Communities That Care has already
proven it works and is worth cheering for.”
Forefront drives legislative and media focus on suicide prevention
Forefront Director Sue Eastgard (MSW '88), Assistant Professor Jennifer Stuber and
Rep. Tina Orwall (MSW '91) (D-Des Moines) joined forces this winter to
help shape a bill (ESHB
2315) that requires suicide prevention training for primary-care
providers. Eastgard, Stuber and Orwall put together a grassroots
campaign that included convening stakeholders to write the legislation,
contributing expert testimony for committee hearings, working with
suicide-attempt survivors and those who have lost a friend or relative
to suicide to tell their stories, and organizing a lobby day so that
citizens could explain the importance of suicide prevention in
face-to-face sessions with legislators. Signed into law on March 27, the legislation also sets up a pilot advice line for
front-line providers treating suicidal patients and creates a statewide suicide prevention plan.
The impetus for the law came from research showing that a vast
majority of suicides are preventable, but that health care professionals
receive little, if any, training in diagnosis or treatment of those at
risk of
suicide—a problem Stuber discussed in a Jan. 26 Seattle Times essay. An estimated 95 percent of those individuals experienced undiagnosed, under-treated or untreated
mental health disorders such as depression; and almost half had seen a primary-care
provider in the month before their deaths. Stuber was also interviewed by KUOW
on the same subject.
New research shows social workers can help
those with mild traumatic brain injuries
For patients suffering from mild
traumatic brain injuries, just 20 minutes spent talking with a social worker
before being discharged can aid in the recovery process, according to a new study led by Assistant Professor Megan Moore (pictured, left). This research, profiled in UW Today, can have significant
impact because head injuries affect more than a million people nationwide
each year, and up to 77 percent of the 220,000 head injuries incurred by U.S.
service members between 2000 and 2011 were termed “mild.” Moore’s research was published in the April
2014 issue of Brain Injury.
Moore created a quick procedure
for social workers to administer to patients leaving the emergency room.
The counseling provides them with coping strategies, resources and a
brief alcohol
intervention screening. Compared with people who received only medical
care,
the group who got the additional counseling was doing significantly
better
three months later. Learn more about Moore’s study in an interview
by KUOW
health and science reporter Gabriel Spitzer.
Upcoming events
Colors of Hope highlights art by cancer survivors and caregivers
Art is a universal language of expression that reaches across
cultures and speaks to us on a deeply human level. The Colors of
Hope Art Collection, on display from April 21 to Aug. 21 in the
School's first floor gallery, consists of 24 pieces of art from around
the world, illustrating the human
experience of a cancer diagnosis.
The collection, an
international initiative of The Max Foundation, provides a worldwide
avenue for the visual expression of feelings related to the cancer
journey—specifically,
recognition of the positive outcomes of the journey itself. The exhibit is open to the public.
Tessa Evans-Campbell explores resiliency among Native Americans in May 15 lecture
Historical trauma associated with Indian child welfare has had a tremendous
impact on multiple generations of Native Americans. In the next installment of the
Luminary Lectures series—Making
Our Way Back Home: Indigenous Resilience and Resistance in Child Welfare—Associate Professor Tessa Evans-Campbell explores recent research conducted
on the resiliency of indigenous people, as seen against the historical context
of Indian boarding schools and public child welfare policies. She will illustrate
the effects those policies have had on family well-being, contemporary Native
American identity, and indigenous-led strategies to strengthen resistance and promote
healing. The presentation is May 15 at 5:30 p.m. in Room 305, School of Social
Work. RSVP here.
Social work labor series in May focuses on immigrant rights and worker struggles
Mental health and social services
dominate the field of social work today, but the profession has roots in
the early 1900s' workers’ and unions’ rights
movement. To revitalize the link between labor rights and social work,
the School of Social Work is hosting a series of discussions called "Working Together for Labor Justice." The public series—held throughout Labor History Month—will
include events on fair wages, immigrant workers, decent working
conditions, the right to organize, and global pressures on workers. Read more, and view a schedule of events.
School celebrates graduates on June 12
The School of Social Work will graduate 252 individuals on Thursday,
June 12. The ceremony will be from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Alaska Airlines Arena with a reception to
follow. Guests should plan to arrive by 4:30 p.m. More information about
the 2014 graduation celebration is available online, including a frequently asked questions page.
Milestones
Herman McKinney, Seattle community leader and advocate, dies
Herman McKinney, a
tireless advocate for diversity in graduate education and equal
opportunity in
corporate hiring, died April 11 at the age of 75. An elder statesman in
the
African-American community, McKinney started his career in banking but
soon
transferred to social work. He received an MSW from the School in 1968
and worked for nine years as assistant dean of the minority education
division at the UW Graduate School.
In 1976, McKinney founded
The Breakfast Group, an association of African-American men who served as
mentors to young black males who had been expelled from school or were in
danger of being expelled. In 1993, he
led a march of 8,000 people downtown, calling on the business community to
invest more in the city’s poorer neighborhoods.
The Seattle Metropolitan
Chamber of Commerce was so impressed they hired McKinney to lead a new initiative, the
Urban Enterprise Center, where he served as director from 1993 to 2006. McKinney is
credited with reducing tensions in the city during that era by bring race
issues out into the open. He helped thousands of low-income people get jobs
through a partnership between the state Employment Security Department and more
than 900 companies. In 2000, he received the School’s Distinguished Alumni
Award.
“It is difficult to think
of anyone who has done more to advance the cause of social justice and civil
rights in Seattle than Herm,” said School of Social Work Dean Eddie Uehara.
“Throughout his life and illustrious career, he modeled the kind of courage,
conviction, optimism and imagination it takes to be a successful agent of
social transformation.”
McKinney is survived by
his wife, Norma, three children—Kristal (MSW ’05), Kevin and Kent—eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Emeritus faculty member Sidney Miller is remembered
Emeritus faculty member Sidney Miller passed away Feb. 16 at age 91. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Miller attended Brooklyn
College and later served as an airplane mechanic at American bases in England
during World War II. Miller returned to New York after the war and attended Brooklyn
College before transferring to Columbia University. In 1951, he earned a
bachelor’s degree in psychology at Columbia, and two years later, a master’s
degree in psychiatric social work. In 1953, Miller and his wife, Janet, moved to
Seattle, where he was a social worker at the King County Juvenile Court and
later at Ryther Child Center. He served as an associate professor at the School
until 1988. Read the full obituary and make a contribution to the Sidney Miller Memorial Scholarship Fund.
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