This year’s SSW alumni award recipients. From the top left moving clockwise, Derek Crain, Dr. Em Loerzel and Dr. Ramona E. Beltrán.
May 8, 2026
The UW School of Social Work is excited to welcome alumni from across the country to our annual Alumni Mixer on May 14 for a celebration of community, connection and achievement. This year’s event honors three outstanding alumni: Derek Crain, Ramona Beltran and Em Loerzel, whose professional accomplishments and commitment to social work exemplify the values of our School. In addition to recognizing this year’s alumni award recipients, the mixer offers a meaningful opportunity for alumni and current Ph.D. students to share experiences and strengthen intergenerational networks within the SSW community.
To learn more about this year’s recipients, read the profiles below.
Em Loerzel – Ph.D., MSW, LICSW: Early Career Achievement Award
Dr. Em Loerzel (White Earth Ojibwe) is a researcher, social worker and educator specializing in Native American community wellness and intimate partner violence. She is the founder of The Humble Horse in Twin Cities — a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and community education of the critically endangered Ojibwe Horse. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of Washington and a MSW from Aurora University.
What has been the most challenging aspect of your work, and how did you navigate it?
The most challenging aspect of social work can be continuing to do the work when broader structures in our society seem to undermine it. We carry the strength of our ancestors within us to continue to do amazing things that bring hope to a future that may seem dark.
Can you share a moment in your career that affirmed why this work matters?
I’m not sure if there was a singular moment. More a cumulation of experiences that have let me look back in appreciation of the knowledge that others have given me that I can use to help others in ways they need it.
How do you sustain purpose and resilience in demanding roles?
I ask myself, “What would you do to help your relatives survive?” Our communities and spaces that we work with are parts of our greater networks, and therefore connected to us. Ultimately, we are only as well as the community that surround us and framing them as relations can remind us of why the work is important.
Were there courses, faculty or experiences at the UW School of Social Work, that had a lasting influence on you?
The ability to be surrounded and mentored by Indigenous faculty and students, and the strong network that exists around Ph.D. alumni is invaluable. I will continue to cherish the mentors and colleagues I was able to learn from immensely.
What are you currently working on and where do you hope to see your work go in the future?
I am currently working in the space of multispecies social work; It turns out, not just two legged beings need social workers, often our four legged relatives need us, too. I hope to be back in a space that allows me to educate and mentor future and emerging social workers in the near future.
Ramona E. Beltrán – Ph.D., MSW: Established Impact Award
Dr. Ramona Beltrán is an associate professor and associate dean of research and faculty development in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver and a proud alum of the University of Washington School of Social Work, where she learned to combine academic rigor with ancestral ways of knowing.
What first drew you to social work, and how has your understanding of the field evolved over your career?
Social work was the last field I expected to pursue. As a child growing up on public assistance, I experienced social workers as surveillants rather than supports. It wasn’t until exploring graduate programs that I learned about social work’s commitments to social justice and human rights. That disciplinary stance, grounded in accountability and care, is what ultimately drew me in.
What has been the most challenging aspect of your work, and how did you navigate it?
One of the greatest challenges has been the constant shift in political agendas that shape whether, and how, our communities receive resources to support health and well-being. What has always remained true, though, is that we find a way together. Mutual aid and collective care are not new to Indigenous and Latine communities; we draw from these ancestral practices to support one another.
Another challenge has been navigating grief and loss in a time of ongoing, layered trauma. I’ve learned that sometimes the work is simply to sit in presence; bearing witness, holding pain with care, honoring it as a sacred offering, affirming our shared humanity. And bringing cookies.
Can you share a moment in your career that affirmed why this work matters?
In 2015, I collaborated with Native, Indigenous- and Latine-serving organizations to develop and implement a culture-centered HIV prevention curriculum for Indigenous youth. It was a four-day summer workshop led by an all Native and Indigenous Latine research and facilitation team. Twenty-three of twenty-five youth stayed for the entire program, an unusually high retention rate.
What stayed with me most were the post-workshop reflections. Youth shared things like, “It felt good just to be in a space with other Native people,” and “I didn’t have to explain myself.” Even though we hadn’t designed it as such, it became an intergenerational space with parents and even grandparents hanging out. One parent told me, “We need more spaces like this – spaces to tell our own stories in our own way.” I took that to heart, and it has shaped every community commitment I’ve made since.
How do you sustain purpose and resilience in demanding roles?
I remember that my ancestors endured so much so that I could be here. And I remember that it’s my turn to lay a softer path, so that my children and the generations to come have more room for joy, ease, imagination, play and possibility.
Were there courses, faculty or experiences at the UW School of Social Work that had a lasting influence on you?
Dr. Susan Kemp’s theory course during my first year in the Ph.D. program truly rocked my world. She helped me fall in love with theory and the theory–praxis nexus. I also deeply loved teaching Historical Trauma and Healing in the MSW program. Students were consistently generous, thoughtful and brilliant. I learned as much, if not more, from them as they did from me.
What are you currently working on, and where do you hope to see your work go in the future?
I’m currently working with my colleague, Dr. Kelly Fayard, and History Colorado on a survey with survivors, descendants and families impacted by the Federal Indian Boarding School system. Our goal is to identify experiences of historical trauma, associated impacts and the strengths and possibilities within Native communities. The findings will inform state-level recommendations to support healing across Colorado.
Our team also recently completed work on the Our Stories, Our Medicine Archive, a web-based digital archive centering traditional Indigenous health knowledge as a tool for addressing chronic disease. Findings suggest that representation truly matters — identifying with storytellers and stories may increase engagement with health information. We’re continuing to build the archive and, alongside our Community Advisory Board, exploring next steps that may lead to intervention development rooted in the stories and artifacts documented on the website.
Derek Crain – MSW, LICSW: Established Impact Award
Derek Crain is a behavioral health leader, clinician and educator, as well as the co‑founder and CEO of Mindful Therapy Group. Since launching the organization in 2011 with Jessica Crain — his wife, business partner, and COO of Mindful Therapy Group — Derek has helped grow it into one of the nation’s fastest‑growing behavioral health networks.
What first drew you to social work, and how has your understanding of the field evolved over your career?
I was raised by a single mother who worked tirelessly for years to support my younger sister and me. She was an RN with a demanding job and was also raising two kids on her own. I saw the way that she fought so hard to support us, while working in a field focused on serving others. I learned the importance of people helping people, something that really appealed to me, and as I moved into the workforce, it was clear that this was the core mission of social work.
Throughout my career, my understanding of the field has evolved significantly. In clinical work, I learned how a client-centered approach can genuinely empower clients. From a broader perspective, I saw that obstacles to accessing care limit the help people can get. I saw how low reimbursement rates limit clinicians’ ability to provide that care, putting more stress on the people who are trying to make a difference. As this understanding evolved, it led me and Jessica to create an organization where the priority was supporting clinicians and empowering them to provide high quality mental healthcare to the community.
What has been the most challenging aspect of your work, and how did you navigate it?
In social work we often talk about systems and how those systems impact people’s lives. After 35 years in the field, I’ve seen how fragmented our healthcare system can be and how much effort it takes to bridge the gap to create effective access to mental healthcare.
In our organization we are constantly engaging with healthcare facilities, insurance payers, technology vendors and many other organizations to build pipelines that help clinicians provide quality care and help clients access that care as smoothly as possible. It requires an immense amount of coordination, and the catch is that those systems are changing all the time. But we have found that hard work, dedication and collaboration with other healthcare providers truly make an impact on helping clients get the mental healthcare they need.
Can you share a moment in your career that affirmed why this work matters?
A really vivid experience that comes to mind is March 2020 at the onset of the pandemic. We’d never been through something like that before and our lives were turned upside down. It was a historic moment of collective trauma and it had never been so important to support people through our mission as social workers.
Thankfully, during the previous year, our organization adopted a more robust EHR system that included telehealth features, something that gave us the foundation we needed to act when the lockdown was announced. Our team worked tirelessly all weekend to move patient appointments from in-person to telehealth visits, and as a result, not a single patient missed their appointment. While so many other systems were struggling to adapt, our clients were able to get the support they needed during that difficult time.
This drove home how critical it is for social workers to build reliable, resilient and supportive systems for those we serve.
How do you sustain purpose and resilience in demanding roles?
I never let myself forget where I come from. Growing up in a low-income family with a single working mother, we knew first-hand what struggle was. This work gets difficult, and obstacles multiply the larger an organization gets. But I remember who this is really for, and it keeps me focused. At the end of the day, someone needs to do this work for our communities.
I’ve also learned to surround myself with people who share our dedication and vision, and who don’t back down when times get tough. The people on your team will make or break an organization, so you have to make sure that the people you bring on will be in your corner when difficult times come.
Were there courses, faculty or experiences at the UW School of Social Work that had a lasting influence on you?
I couldn’t have gotten where I am without the support of so many people, but there were a few people who made a significant impact on my education and career.
First, there’s J’May Rivara, who recently retired from the school after decades of dedicated service. She was my field faculty advisor during my practicum, and she supported me as I had my first social work experiences in a hospital setting. She made sure my needs were met at each of those sites. Her diligence and dedication later inspired me to create large practicum programs at Evergreen Hospital and Providence Hospital, modeling my mentorship after her example.
There were also several instructors who taught me so much about what it looks like to be a social worker in the therapy room. Taryn Lindhorst introduced me to client-centered practice and meeting people where they’re at, instead of going in with a fixed agenda. Ron Jackson gave me a comprehensive overview of drug and alcohol assessment and treatment, especially the importance of treatment sequence and the critical need to treat addiction first and foremost.
There was also Taylene Watson, who was the Social Work Director at the VA. I really admired the way she led her social workers, not just directing them, but empowering them to learn and grow throughout their careers.
And of course, my wife Jessica has been my partner in this work every step of the way. We are truly a cohesive team, and every success of mine belongs to us both, because none of what we’ve built could have been done without her keen operational mind and her strong organizational leadership.
What are you currently working on and where do you hope to see your work go in the future?
At Mindful Therapy Group, our priority is creating access to high-quality mental healthcare. While our mission has been consistent, the world around us is changing quickly. We are currently focused on in-depth integration of Measurement Based Care, which allows clinicians to measure and track the progress of clients in therapy. This allows clinicians to adjust where necessary, increasing the effectiveness of therapy and making a bigger impact on a client’s life.
A big focus over the last few years has been our Supervised Associate Program, where we pair associate-level clinicians with state-approved supervisors and support them as they grow throughout their careers. By building a system that provides strong clinical oversight and mentorship for newer clinicians, we’ve been able to open access to care for tens of thousands of clients, while also supporting the next generation of clinicians.
We also continue to invest in brick-and-mortar offices, bringing local care to children, seniors and survivors of domestic violence who rely on in‑person care. Combined with telehealth, this dual‑channel model is expanding access in ways single‑modality platforms cannot match.
Finally, we have been involved in large scale expansion of Medicaid and Medicare credentialing in our organization, which has opened access to more than 4 million people across the six states we serve. It’s important to us that we always prioritize those who often struggle to find care and creating this access has already made a big impact.