School of Social Work staff members Sofie Aaron and Edward Stone pose with UW live mascot Dubs II.
February 23, 2025
For the first time, the annual Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) conference was held in Seattle, and the University of Washington School of Social Work played a significant role in welcoming peer institutions to the conference and contributing to the body of research presentations.
Hosted in the Sheraton Grand Seattle downtown, the SSW opened the conference plenary session on January 16 with remarks from Dean Michael Spencer and a drum performance. With dozens of schools represented, and social work researchers from across 45 states and 15 countries, the conference serves to advance and improve support for social work research.
Faculty, doctoral students, and staff researchers presented over the course of three days at roundtable discussions and oral presentations on critical issues such as food insecurity, foster care policy advocacy, suicide risk among college students and more.
The exhibit hall featured each school’s exhibit booth and ePoster Presentations, where UW live mascot Dubs II stopped by to observe the research presentations and briefly stole the show.
The UW SSW’s highly popular reception and drag show was overflowing with attendees on January 17 in the Sheraton Grand Seattle Cirrus Ballroom, featuring drag artist Aleksa Manila, a School of Social Work alum.
A complete list of UW School of Social Work presenters at the 2025 SSWR Conference below:
Faculty
- Margaret Kuklinski
- Jennifer Romich
- Emiko Tajima
- Kristian Jones
- Angelique Day
- Jane Lee
- Danae G. Dotolo
- Paula Nurius
- Stacey De Fries
- David Huh
- Clara Berridge
- Ryan Petros
- Denise Walker
- Melissa Martinson
Staff
- Lori Vanderwill
- John Fowler
- Sierra Wollenhall
Ph.D. students
- Jon Torres
- Juliann Li Verdugo
- Geraldine Germain
- Hung-Peng Lin
- Santino Camacho
- Hanna Cho
- Tess Abrahamson-Richards
- Kilohana Haitsuka
- Natalie Turner
- Joanna La Torre
We look forward to a fantastic SSWR 2026 in Washington D.C.!