University of Washington School of Social Work
Doctoral Students

Apurva Bahukhandi

obtained her MA in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai India, in 2000. Before coming to the USA for doctoral studies, Apurva worked with low-income women in urban as well as rural India. She also worked as a Research Associate at Tata Energy Research Institute, New-Delhi, on a United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and US Embassy-sponsored project and had a brief stint with the UNDP. Apurva is interested in studying the issues of socioeconomic empowerment and development of third world women. Her specific research focus is on how multilateral funding organizations, grass-roots local organizations, and women themselves conceptualize and operationalize gender empowerment and rural gender development.
email: apurva01@u.washington.edu

Karen Bancroft

obtained an MSW from Walla Walla College in 2003. Karen worked for the Walla Walla Veterans Administration as a case manager for homeless veterans with substance abuse and mental health issues. She is currently a Board member and the treasurer of the Metropolitan Community Church (an international GLBTQI church) in Seattle. Her dissertation uses a spatial and temporal analysis to examine how marginalized people were and continue to be ‘fixed’ in certain spaces. She believes that space and place are intrinsic to social work and its ecological perspective and by placing social work processes into their appropriate spatial and temporal contexts we open up new ways in which to think about practice and research. Having personally experienced homelessness, she is interested in the effects that neoliberalism has had in maintaining and increasing homelessness.
email: bancrk@u.washington.edu

Lisa Bancroft

earned her MSW from the University of Washington Tacoma in 2006. Lisa is currently employed by the RALLI (Resources and Activities for Life Long Independence) Study as the lead psychometrist. This study, through the UW School of Nursing/Department of Psychosocial and Community Health, is investigating the potential cognitive benefits of an exercise intervention for older adults with mild cognitive impairment. Since 1999, Lisa has been involved with the ACT (Adult Changes in Thought) Study at UW Department of Medicine providing services as a psychometrist in a memory and aging cohort study that focuses particularly on Alzheimer’s Disease. Additional research experience has been gained through her work at the National CSWE Gero-Ed Center at the University of Washington; the Northwest Institute for Children and Families; and an HIV study with the Washington State Department of Health. Leading toward her dissertation, Lisa has recently completed a series of focus groups for a translational pilot study designed to improve implementation and sustainability of a dementia-specific staff training program for assisted living residences. Lisa’s practice experience includes her work as a psychometrist at Madigan Army Medical Hospital; as a counselor, case manager, and group facilitator at the PTSD clinic at American Lake VA Hospital; as an intake counselor at Evergreen Treatment Services; and as a counselor for family preservations services. Lisa’s research focuses on the field of gerontology. Her interests include the effects of ageism and how it contributes to isolation and segregation of older adults, the need for appropriate senior housing for greater independence, demetia-specific staff training at assisted living residences, and translational research that contributes to the quality of life for older adults.
email: lmills@u.washington.edu

Ramona Beltran

obtained her MSW from Portland State University in 2005. She has over ten years of experience working with diverse youth and families in clinical and programmatic capacities. The majority of her work has centered around services to Latino and Native American communities. Ramona emphasizes the use of creativity and art in programming including film and photography. She worked with a group of young Latinas to produce a short film that has been in national film festivals and is currently used in collegiate and community curricula in Oregon. Prior to beginning doctoral studies, she worked in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Oregon Health & Sciences University as a senior research assistant and protocol co-coordinator for a Spanish-language clinical trial of Motivational Enhancement Therapy for treatment of drug and alcohol abuse through the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network (NIDA-CTN). As an NIMH Prevention Trainee, Ramona's focus in her doctoral studies is on how space and place become embodied physically and spiritually in indigenous communities.
email: ramonab2@u.washington.edu

Shauna Carlisle

graduated from the University of Washington MSW program in 2002 and has a practice background in the area of adolescent mental health and youth educational outreach. Shauna's research examines race and ethnicity, immigration, and health outcomes. She investigates the social contexts and linkages that explain how and why race, ethnicity, and nativity are associated with different health outcomes. Shauna's research interests include a social demographic analysis of health disparities among black Caribbean populations in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean Islands. Though her research extends to a wide range of health indicators, she is particularly interested in modeling potential years of life lost due to illness across racial/ethnic immigrant groups by length of residency in the United States. Shauna has been the recipient of a Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology Doctoral Fellowship.
email: ske9902@u.washington.edu

Elizabeth Circo

comes to the University of Washington from the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, where she was a program assistant. Before that, she was the Project Coordinator for the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect and a counselor for abused, abandoned and neglected children in Washington, DC, where she earned a BA in philosophy and an MSW from Howard University. She also volunteered her time facilitating a young women's support group. Elizabeth's research interests center on the social development, adaptation and resilience of girls of color, especially as related to child sexual abuse, sexual orientation and other gender-related issues. She is also interested in studying children abusing other children and gender-based bullying.
email: ecirco@u.washington.edu

Marie-Celeste Condon

completed an MS in Early Childhood Special Education from the University of Houston and an internship in Infant-Family Habilitation at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Oregon in 1980.  In 2004, she completed the UW Certificate Program in Infant Mental Health and Development.  During 2006-08, she was a fellow in the UW Multidisciplinary Clinical Translational Research Training Program in Public Health. 
Marie-Celeste has more than 20 years of clinical experience in early intervention, early childhood education, infant mental health and development.  She helped develop the concept and practice of "Diagnostic Early Intervention" (Moeller & Condon, 1994, 1998).  She worked with families and service providers to design, implement, and evaluate relationship-focused early intervention programs for families of infants who are at risk for language, social, and emotional problems, deaf, hard-of-hearing, and deaf-blind.
Marie-Celeste is currently using qualitative methods and a Participatory Action Research approach to study the experiences of infants, mothers, and early childhood and corrections professionals in a prison nursery program.  Her research is funded by a two-year dissertation grant from the Administration for Children, Youth and Families Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (Grant HHS-2008-ACF-OPRE-YR0060. CDFA 93.600).
email: mariec@u.washington.edu

Meg Cristofalo

earned an MSW from the University of Washington (1997) and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania. She has practiced medical and psychiatric social work in inpatient and emergency room settings, and played an instrumental role in developing and implementing an emergency room social work program at a local medical center. Meg's research focus is utilizing critical qualitative methods to study the experiences and processes of patients and providers in community mental health care.
email: cristofa@u.washington.edu

Amelia Derr

holds a BA from Macalester College and an MSW from the University of Washington. Amelia has 12 years of social work practice experience - primarily in the areas of immigrant rights, bias-based violence and discrimination, international trafficking, and social justice arts education for youth. Most recently, she spent five years as the Director of Education for OneAmerica, a nonprofit founded in the aftermath of 9/11/01 to respond to backlash against immigrant religious communities in the U.S. Amelia also taught as an auxiliary faculty/lecturer in the University of Washington School of Social Work for six years, concentrating on courses with social justice, case management, intergroup dialogue, and social work history/theory content. Amelia has worked as a Research Assistant and Research Associate on several projects: participatory action research in India on trafficking of women and girls; qualitative and quantitative research on Intergroup relations for the Intergroup Dialogue, Education and Action Institute; a study of the political, economic, and social role of religious and secular organizations in the lives of immigrants for the Jackson School of International Studies; and a study of the long-term health and mental health impacts of neglect. Amelia is currently an NIMH Prevention Trainee working on a quantitative study of the impact of religiosity on mental health in migration experiences. She also received a Clarke Chambers Travel Fellowship for Summer 2009 to complete archival work for a historiography of religion and social work during the 1920s.
email: seraphia@u.washington.edu

Aileen Duldulao

earned her MSW with a concentration in Administration from the University of Washington in 2006. A second-generation immigrant, Aileen has extensive experience working with low-income immigrant communities in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, with a focus on issues of domestic violence and sexual assault, mental health, welfare rights, and immigration law. Prior to coming to the UW, Aileen was Development Director for the Center for the Pacific Asian Family, a domestic violence and sexual assault agency in Los Angeles, and worked on immigrant rights issues at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. In the Bay Area, Aileen was also a research assistant for the Filipino American Community Epidemiological Study. During her MSW program, Aileen received a Pre-Masters Research Fellowship to work with the National Latino and Asian American Study.
Aileen’s research interests are focused on the epidemiology and etiology of mental illness among Asian Pacific Islander first and second generation immigrants and the impact of pre- and post-migration processes, human and social capital and US immigration policy on short and long-term mental health outcomes for this population. Most importantly, Aileen hopes to critically engage immigrants and refugees in developing community and culturally-based preventive interventions aimed at addressing mental illness, particularly depression and suicide. Aileen is an NIMH Prevention Research Trainee.
email: aileend@u.washington.edu

Antonio (Tony) Garcia

received his bachelors in Psychology and Spanish at the University of Oregon in 2001. Two years later, he attained a MSW at the University of Washington (UW), during which time he interned for Child Protective Services (CPS). He also devoted much of his time to working on various research projects, which focused on examining risk and protective factors that contribute to depression and risky sexual behavior among racially diverse adolescents. Between graduating from UW and entering the PhD Program in 2006, he was employed with the Washington State DSHS Office of African American Children's Services, investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect. He then transferred to the Vancouver DSHS office, serving in the same capacity as a CPS investigator.
Tony's primary research interests focus on child welfare practice innovation and policy reform. He is dedicated to examining underlying causal factors that contribute to the disproportionate representation of children of color in the child welfare system. His most recent research efforts include conducting secondary analyses of the National Survey of Child & Adolescent Well-being dataset to examine the experiences and pathways to child welfare system involvement and services among Latino children and families. Along those lines, Tony is interested in developing culturally sensitive modalities and interventions that effectively address mental health service disparities for clients involved in child serving systems of care. Tony received a Graduate Opportunity Program Research Assistantship for his first year in the program. Since then, Tony has been awarded the CSWE Minority Fellowship to support his research endeavors.
email: tonyga@u.washington.edu

Sharmistha Ghosh

joined our program as a transfer student from the UW Women’s Studies doctoral program. After completing two Master’s degrees, first in political science at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, and then in public affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, Sharmistha worked in the Center for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS) in New Delhi on a project on the pioneers of the microfinance movement among the women in India.  Her research interests center on the issue of violence against women, specifically violence against women within the household in developing countries. As a social welfare scholar, her goal is to study how interventions made by microfinance programs affect women’s lives within the private sphere, particularly in terms of violence.
email: ghoshs@u.washington.edu

Amanda Gilman

completed her MSW (with an emphasis in social policy) at Loma Linda University in June, 2009. She received her BA in Sociology from California State University Long Beach. Amanda completed her field practicum at the San Bernardino Mayor’s Office under the Director of Community Safety and Violence Prevention, where she worked extensively on community-based intervention and prevention strategies for reducing youth violence and gang activity. During this time she also served as the project manager for a county-wide juvenile delinquency court assessment. In her doctoral studies she plans to continue researching issues pertaining to juvenile delinquency, including juvenile justice policies, prevention strategies, and the relationship to mental health.
email: abg5@u.washington.edu

Stella Gran O'Donnell

received her dual Masters of Social Work and Public Health (MSW/MPH) from the University of Washington in 1996 and 1998, respectively and a BA in Business Administration from Seattle University’s Albers School of Business. Stella has over 15 years experience in community-based research projects that address social, cultural and behavioral aspects of health and mental health of underserved, racial and ethnic minorities including refugees and immigrants. Most recently, Stella was employed as an Epidemiologist II in the Epidemiology, Planning, and Evaluation (EPE) Unit of Public Health—Seattle & King County. She served as lead qualitative evaluator for the Promoting Assets Across Cultures Project (PAAC) and Co-Director for the Community Research Center (CRC) – administered by Seattle Partners for Healthy Communities, local CDC-funded Urban Research Center. Stella is the recipient of a University of Washington Presidential Diversity Fellowship, an NIMH Prevention Science Fellowship, and is currently funded as a CSWE – NIMH Minority Mental Health Fellow. Stella’s research interests include addressing social, historical, cultural factors, processes and mechanisms including neighborhoods, “places” and communities and their influence on the prevention of suicidal behaviors among refugees and immigrants, e.g., Asian Americans. She hopes to continue ongoing partnerships with local communities to identify and develop culturally appropriate measures, e.g., protective factors that will inform future research and interventions. More specifically, working as an intervention researcher she hopes to advance knowledge and support the design and development of innovative, locally-driven, prevention efforts that promote community protective factors and reduce suicidality, depression, and related behaviors (e.g., HIV, inter-personal and community violence) in refugee and immigrant communities. Stella is interested in community organizing/mobilization with underserved groups including youth, young people, women, refugees and immigrants; community-based participatory research (CBPR); and organizational development and capacity building. Her teaching interests include: macro-level, community empowerment practice; social work practice with refugee and immigrant youth and communities; program planning/development; evaluation and sustainability; and promoting cultural competency in social work practice.
email: sgran@u.washington.edu

Sara Green

obtained an MA in Counseling Psychology from the University of Santa Monica, and completed her practicum traineeship at the UCLA Center for Community Health facilitating family-based prevention intervention groups for Spanish speaking HIV+ mothers and their adolescent children. Sara worked as part of the clinical intervention team at the UCLA Headquarters for the FOCUS Project, a family level, resiliency training prevention program that serves Marine and Navy families at bases across the country. She is interested in strengths-based, mental health prevention programs for families, women and children and the cultural competency of such interventions and within social work practice. She is also interested in the protective mental health and coping factors of spirituality for at-risk families and individuals. Prior to joining our program, Sara worked as a therapist at the UCLA Child and Family Trauma Clinic, where she served English and Spanish speaking children and families.
email: srgreen@u.washington.edu

Charles Hoy-Ellis

completed his MSW (clinical/contextual practice) at the University of Washington in 2004. Since then he has been a clinician at Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities, providing therapeutic mental health and addictions counseling services to members of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (i.e., ‘queer’) communities. Charles’ research interests include biopsychosocial health and healthcare disparities in these communities and communities impacted by HIV/AIDS, especially as they experience the aging process. He is interested in using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to identify and develop intervention and prevention efforts that contribute to improving the quality of life of our queer elders.
email: ellisc@u.washington.edu

Kimberly Hudson

earned her MSW from the University of Michigan in 2007, where she focused on intergroup dialogue and community organizing, specifically with the LGBTQ and ally communities. Kimberly has also contributed to a reflective learning project which facilitated digital storytelling among community leaders and a reflective learning process helping to better understand, document, and share lessons learned from decades of community organizing efforts in the greater Boston area. Currently, Kimberly's primary research interests are in community organizing, particularly how racial politics inform levels of engagement, roles, and responsibilities for social workers working within communities of Color. Her focus is on critical social work education, ambiguous social identities, and the “insider/outsider” paradigm in community practice.
email: kdree@u.washington.edu

Richard Justin

is a graduate of the University of Washington MSW program (1996) and holds a PhD in music. During the past few years he has worked as a lead counselor with the HIV/AIDS Project Development and Evaluation Unit (HAPDEU) at the University of Washington.
In addition to his work on HIV/AIDS, Richard's research interests focus on clinical practice issues concerning mental health, especially in relation to problems for sexual minorities.
email: rjustin@u.washington.edu

Peris Kibera

obtained her MSW from Portland State University in 2004. Peris has practice experience in the areas of community development, program planning and development, program administration, parent education and sexuality and reproductive health counseling.
Peris’ research interests center around women’s reproductive health. Her dissertation research will utilize feminist and other critical social theory perspectives to examine systemic and process dynamics associated with loss to follow-up among patients enrolled in two Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programs in Kenya. Peris received the Boeing Fellowship during her first year in the doctoral program.
email: pkibera@u.washington.edu

Jeffrey (Bart) Klika

completed his bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of Montana in 2002. In Montana, Bart worked for an organization that provided specialized treatment for children diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder. He worked as both a direct care staff in a group home and as a community-based case manager. Bart received his master’s degree from the University of Chicago in 2008. While in Chicago, he provided counseling services for adolescents at-risk for substance use disorders in addition to providing general counseling services to children and families. At University of Chicago, Bart was a research assistant on the Infant and Child Development Project. His current research interests include the prevention of child maltreatment and the promotion of positive development. Currently, Bart is a Research Assistant on the Lehigh Longitudinal Study where he is investigating the risks and consequences associated with family violence and the unfolding of resilience across the life-course.  In the coming year, Bart is completing a research practicum through the Social Development Research Group on their Intergenerational Project.
email: bklika@u.washington.edu

Allison Kristman-Valente

graduated from the UW MSW program in 2003. She is interested in intervention and prevention research with substance abusing women with complex trauma histories: specifically, how the role of social, familial, and type of violence factors impact drug behaviors in women with co-occurring substance use and PTSD; how interventions contribute to the prevention of the familial legacy of substance use and trauma (I.E., the efficacy of trauma-focused intervention for female substance users from differing subgroups including, but not limited to, women of color, and lesbian and bisexual women); and how we can include core constructs such as historical family trauma and patriarchal oppression into explanatory variables as part of the study matrix. She is currently working on longitudinal data looking at the etiology of substance use among maltreated children with Todd Herrenkohl and trauma specific factors on interpersonal conflict amongst substance-using women with Elizabeth Wells. Allison is an NIMH Prevention Training Program Trainee.
email: ankv@u.washington.edu

Carrie Lanza

received her MSW in community organizing from University of Michigan in 1999. Her undergraduate training was in cultural anthropology at Ohio University. Her doctoral work to date has focused on a critical history of maternal and child health practice and policymaking in social work and social welfare. She has also served as a researcher and practitioner on a variety of projects related to maternal and infant mental health. Lanza is returning to doctoral studies after a several-year hiatus. Her focus has shifted towards an interdisciplinary exploration of the implications of the rise of social media and the democratization of access to digital media production for the field of social work and the nature of public scholarship. Lanza is also a trained and experienced film producer and a social media consultant. Her other research passions include spirituality and holistic approaches to wellness, popular culture, and women’s reproductive health.
email: clanza@u.washington.edu

 

JoAnn Lee

graduated from Columbia University with her MSW in 2005. She has worked with adolescents and youths involved with the juvenile justice system around family issues and substance abuse. She also has policy analysis experience in city government and immediately prior to joining the program worked at an internal research and evaluation department for an organization that serves homeless youth in San Francisco. JoAnn is interested in studying systems-involved youth, especially the ways in which systems interact (or fail to interact) to serve young people who are involved in multiple systems. Also of particular interest is documenting outcomes for juvenile justice youth with the goal of working toward more overall consistency and quality.
email: jsl11@u.washington.edu

Carl Maas

received his MSW and MPH at the University of South Carolina (2001).
Carl has worked in the United States and Latin America as a social worker. His work experience ranges from rural community development (Women in Development programs), child welfare (maltreatment prevention and family reunification), and counseling (intimate partner violence perpetrator group counselor and family/individual consultation) to mental health program planning, service implementation (language translation/ interpretation services for Spanish speaking consumers in South Carolina), and community activism (social/human rights and Green Party organizing). Currently Carl works as a research assistant at the Social Development Research Group and at the Friends and Family Lab. Carl's research interests are focused on child and parent emotion regulation and its influence on family violence perpetration and victimization (child maltreatment and intimate partner violence). Carl is an NIMH Prevention Research Trainee.
email: cdmaas@u.washington.edu

Gillian Marshall

received her MSW from the University of Washington School of Social Work in June 2002. Over the two years prior to entering the doctoral program, she was employed with the City of Seattle-Aging and Disability Services, the Odessa Brown Children's Clinic, and as a Research Assistant for Dr. Karen Lincoln at the University of Washington School of Social Work.
Gillian's research interests include African American older adults, health disparities, mental health, and social support networks. Gillian is co-author of the article "Health Screening and Health Promotion Program for the Elderly," which appears in the Journal of Disease Management and Health Outcomes, and sole-author of "The Golden Years: African American Women and Retirement," African American Research Perspectives, Winter 2005 (an occasional report published by the Program for Research on Black Americans at the University of Michigan).
email: geegee@u.washington.edu

Morna E. McEachern

earned her MSW from the University of Washington in 2006. Her education background includes studying classics and Waldorf Teacher Training. Before matriculating at the University of Washington, she spent over 20 years as a teacher, counselor, and administrator in the Waldorf education movement. She is the founding faculty member of the Waldorf high school in Seattle. Her most recent work prior to entering the PhD program was in educational advocacy for adjudicated youth.
Morna is interested in the historical foundations of power dynamics as they apply to social welfare and the legal bases of educational policy for marginalized groups of students, particularly pregnant and parenting teenagers. Through researching the historical bases and the systems that administer education policy, she is searching for avenues for social and policy change in education that will support educational outcomes for pregnant and parenting teenagers.
email: mcmorna@u.washington.edu

Gita Mehrotra

obtained her MSW from the University of Minnesota in 2001 and her BA in Sociology and Psychology from Macalester College, St. Paul, MN. For the past 10 years she has been involved with anti-violence against women work in a variety of capacities including direct service, education and training, and program development and management with a focus on Asian immigrant and queer communities. Most recently she was the Community Projects Coordinator at Asian Women’s Shelter in San Francisco, CA.
Gita’s interests include violence against women in South Asian and queer women of color communities, understanding the roles of culture and cultural competency in social work settings, anti-oppression training/education, community-based research, and organizational development and capacity building with women’s and people of color social justice groups/organizations. Gita received a Graduate Opportunity Program Research Assistantship during her first year in the doctoral program.
email: gitarani@u.washington.edu

Dorothy (Jody) Miesel

received her MSW from Boston University in 2007 with a concentration in macro social work. She received her BA from St. Olaf College in 2001 with a major in sociology and concentrations in racial and multicultural studies. Jody’s professional work experience has primarily sought to address issues and concerns pertinent to older adults. This has included case management in the Massachusetts home care system, as well as evaluation and planning work at Generations Incorporated and the Institute for Geriatric Social Work at Boston University. While completing her doctoral studies, Jody is working at the National CSWE Gero-Ed Center at the University of Washington. Her academic interests include the feminization of poverty in old age, the promotion of education and training of geriatric social workers, and the social construction of aging.
email: djmiesel@u.washington.edu

Shawn L. Mincer

earned his MSW in 2003 at the University of Michigan, with a concentration in community organizing/community and social systems. For the two years prior to entering the PhD program he worked as a College Instructor, teaching sociology at Washtenaw Community College. At the same time, he held a position at the University of Michigan working in the Division of Student Affairs, University Unions Arts and Programs Department, helping to develop recreational and educational programs for students. Shawn also has worked on a grant development team with Professor Mieko Yoshihama at the University of Michigan. The team acquired funding through the CDC for a prevention program for domestic violence in the immigrant South Asian community in Southeast Michigan. While working on this project, he also worked as a Special Project Assistant for the Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. During his tenure, the coalition developed an Altria-funded project on domestic violence prevention in the Spanish speaking populations in the Greater Detroit area. This participant-driven project created and distributed Spanish and English language prevention messages through multiple media outlets. They also completed a national delphi survey on best methods in tertiary domestic violence prevention, which lead to a statewide conference and publication. In addition, Shawn worked on a team implementing a CDC-funded program to enhance local IPV prevention by enhancing and expanding Coordinated Community Response Programs in selected communities.
Shawn’s area of research is Intimate Partner Violence among the population of men who have sex with men. With the ultimate career goal of developing culturally competent prevention and intervention modalities, he focuses on the mixed-methods research approach to develop a deeper understanding of how this population develops meaning around this issue. He believes such research will contribute to a fuller understanding of partner violence in all populations and lead to more effective prevention and intervention strategies in heterosexual, bisexual, and queer relationships. He also seeks to do research on the current level of service provision in the existing domestic violence service provider system for men who identify as having sex with men. Where are we now, and where do we need to go to establish an effective service system for this population?
email: smincer@washington.edu

Sarah Mountz

received her MSW from Columbia University in 2003. She has been working in various areas of the child welfare system for the past six years, first in Portland, Oregon, and later in New York City, where she worked first with LGBTQ Adolescents residing in congregate foster care and later with birth parents in infant adoption. Her research interests include evaluating and strengthening services to LGBTQ youth in care through enhanced cross-systems collaboration and the development of additional permanency resources. She is particularly interested in the strengths and needs of youth of transgender experience within the foster care system.
email: smountz@u.washington.edu

Carrie Moylan

graduated with an MSW from the University of Michigan in 2001. She worked with sexual assault and domestic violence survivors for seven years, including providing crisis intervention, counseling, and group facilitation. She also established a teen outreach and education program, trained countless volunteers, and worked on improving services to sexual assault survivors, LGBT survivors, and teen survivors. My research focuses on how communities and organizations can enhance their ability to work inter-professionally in order to respond to victims of violence in a way that reduces the negative consequences associated with such violence. Currently, Carrie is an NIH Multidisciplinary Predoctoral Research Trainee (TL1 RR 025016-01) and is working on a qualitative research project entitled: “Sexual Assault Response Teams: Exploring Effectiveness.”
email: cmoylan@u.washington.edu

Quynh-Tram Huu Nguyen

graduated from the California State University, Long Beach, with an MSW in 1998. She then served as a child welfare social worker and licensed psychotherapist for six years. Most importantly, since 1994 Quynh-Tram has been a community activist within the Asian community in Southern California where she has followed her passion for empowering and advocating for women and children. She also served as the Co-Chair of a non-profit organization named Vietnamese American Human Services Association (VAHSA). Its mission is to empower the Vietnamese professionals in human services as well as to concentrate on the promotion of mental health and community development for the Vietnamese community.
Quynh-Tram is currently interested in examining the effects of post-war memory of Vietnamese communities in the US. Her teaching/research focuses on critical consciousness in Transnational Social Work that intersects Action Research, Performance Studies, Transnational Religions, Critical Race Theories, and Community Development. Previously she involved in an inter-university project (UW-Harvard-Brandeis) to examine the role of spiritual capital for influencing Vietnamese and Mexican integration into a small-scaled city. Quynh-Tram had recently engaged in a community-based collaborative project between UW Bothell/Interdisciplinary Arts & Science and Difficult Dialogues Program of UW/Seattle to examine identity, memory, and history through theatrical traditions of Southeast Asia.
email: qthn@u.washington.edu

Roy L. Old Person, Jr.

earned his MSW from Columbia University in 1999. Most of his career prior to returning to school was spent in New York City as a medical social worker at New York Presbyterian Hospital's HIV/AIDS center providing case management and individual/group mental health services to adult men and women. He was also employed as a clinician in Santa Fe, NM, at Southwest C.A.R.E. Center providing case management and mental health services among HIV-positive clients.
Roy's research interests focus on the HIV/AIDS epidemic among Native American populations with a focus on Native American male sexuality and sexual behavior. Roy is a CSWE fellow.
email: royo@u.washington.edu 

Nancy Lynn Palmanteer-Holder

is a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington School of Social Work; in 1991 she earned her MEd, from WSU, and in 1985 her BEd, from EWU. For 25+ years, she has worked in education, counseling, community development, and administration. Her research interest is to advance Tribal-Based Participatory Research (TBPR) as an indigenizing tool to inform policies, processes, interventions, and systems changes in reducing tribal health and social inequities. Currently, she is a Research Associate to Dr. Bonnie Duran, Director for UW Center of Indigenous Health Research, on a National Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Processes and Outcomes study, along with assisting a National CBPR Advisory Committee led by Dr. Nina Wallerstein, University of New Mexico. Per Lynn’s research interest, this specific study partners with the Navajo Nation Health Research Review Board, and National Congress of American Indians Policy Center. Her dissertation proposal uses a critical indigenous qualitative participatory design to investigate local causes, gaps, and solutions to health & social inequities. Using this research-policy nexus, Lynn hopes to contribute to the knowledge gap within and among five Washington State Tribes as they prepare for the upcoming National Indian Health Care Reform Legislation.
email: nh@u.washington.edu 

Dana Prince

received her BA in Women’s Studies from Oberlin College (’02). She then worked for six years at the University of Pennsylvania Netter Center for Community Partnerships based at Sayre High School in West Philadelphia. During her tenure, Dana oversaw a robust school day peer health education program that positioned youth as deliverers—and not merely recipients—of health education. Additionally, she developed two after-school peer health education projects: Nutrition Most Wanted and the Stay Safe Crew, a project to promote healthy sexuality and teen dating relationships. Dana’s work with youth in West Philly was the foundation for her master’s thesis for her MPH degree (UPenn, ’08): a focused ethnography of the lived context of Black youth sexual decision making. Dana believes that schools are potent sites for informing positive youth development as well as disseminating health interventions. Yet, schooling can also be a vehicle for indoctrination into and maintenance of European cultural hegemony that marginalizes and oppresses youth of color. It is well documented that youth from historically disenfranchised racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups do not fare as well as their white counterparts in our educational system. Dana is interested in research that addresses these issues through the incorporation of racial, cultural and gender socialization as a means to improve self-efficacy, positive group regard, and coping skills.
email: dprince@u.washington.edu

Jessica Rodriguez-Jenkins

graduated from the University of Washington with her MSW in June 2006. Then she worked in Juneau, Alaska, at a non-profit community mental health clinic serving children and families before starting doctoral studies. Jessica worked within a variety of programs, including an early childhood mental health program and served as an early childhood mental health consultant for the Tlingit and Haida early head start programs in South East Alaska. Jessica also worked as a family out-patient therapist, and with transitioning young adults who were homeless. Jessica is interested in trauma-informed interventions with children and youth, looking specifically at culturally based treatment. Jessica is committed to work in the area of social justice using empowerment and anti oppression/anti privilege frameworks and looking at the impact of oppression on society and subsequently the individual. Immediately prior to joining our program, Jessica worked at the University of Washington Medical Center as a per diem Social Worker in women and children, inpatient psychiatry, and med/surg.
email: janrj@u.washington.edu

Patricia Logan Russell

joined the PhD Program after completing her MSW at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 2006. During an internship at the Rape and Sexual Abuse Center in Nashville she formed her passion for working with and understanding the needs of children, men, women, and groups recovering from sexual abuse or assault. She also worked on community awareness and education, including the Clothesline Project. Prior to that, she worked with families mandated to parenting classes, helping to foster positive parenting and prevent child maltreatment. Since matriculating, she has begun volunteering with the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center in a program that provides stability, support, and an extra level of monitoring to sexual offenders living under community supervision.
Patricia’s research interests focus on the experience and perpetration of violence, in particular sexual abuse and assault, and psychological functioning and recovery. She has working with Dr. Paula Nurius on projects that examine lifetime exposure to violence and developmental trajectories related to other resilience and risk factors, as well as coping and risk following sexual assault by an acquaintance. Current research examines the etiology and effects of violent perpetration in adolescence and early adulthood, with an emphasis on quantitative methodologies. Patricia was the 2006 Gottlieb Fellow and is an NIMH trainee (2007-09).
email: plr2@u.washington.edu

Ebasa Sarka

earned his MSW from the University of Washington in 1996.  His study focused on multiethnic practice with children, youth, and families. Thereafter, he worked in the public child welfare field for six years in capacities ranging from child abuse and neglect investigator to child welfare workforce trainer.  He served as a Practicum Instructor with the Child Welfare Training and Advancement Program, a collaborative project between the UW School of Social Work and the State of Washington's Division of Children and Family Services. The program provides advanced practicum experience and training to graduate students preparing to work in the State's child welfare agency. He has also taught courses ranging from biology and its practical and epistemological application in social workers, to child welfare practice, and policy analysis to students at the bachelors and masters levels.  Ebasa received a Presidential Minority Fellowship for 2004-05, and was a CSWE/MFP Fellow from 2006-09.
Ebasa’s research interests include evidence-based and culturally responsive intervention models, and the analysis of racial, ethnic, and cultural factors in child welfare policies and their practice implications.  He has worked with institutions, including Casey Family Programs, in efforts to understand and address the disproportionate representation of children of color in the child welfare system.  Ebasa is currently completing his dissertation titled, “Effects of Childhood Adversities on Resilient Adult Functioning: The Roles of Racial Identity and Discrimination across Racial Groups.”
email: sarkae@u.washington.edu

Jennifer Self

earned her MSW from the University of Washington in 2005 and a masters in counseling from the University of Oregon in 1996. Here's the bottom line: Jennifer likes to think of herself as a renaissance woman, politically and personally committed to radical queer social and economic liberation activism, education, scholarship, programming, and comedy. Jennifer's professional work, grounded in social justice, has included domestic violence advocacy/ training, group and individual counseling, professional and organizational training, teaching, and program development. She practiced under the supervision of an LCSW for seven years in order to shape her clinical skills in interpersonal process therapy. Jennifer is the Coordinator of the University of Washington Q Center, the UW's queer, gay, lesbian, bi, trans, two-spirit, questioning, same-gender-loving, intersex, and differently oriented resource center. Jennifer believes that social and economic justice is the core of Social Work as a profession and discipline. Jennifer is theoretically oriented to critical theories stemming from post-modernism and post-structuralism, and the praxis of social work—how social work (research, practice, and education) could better integrate liberatory schools of thought. She interested in interpretive methodologies and questions related to political and social transformation. Her program of study focuses upon the inherent tensions associated with queer spaces and the juxtaposition of queer identity politics and a broader social justice ethos. In her life away from school, Jennifer is a partner to Meg, mama to an awesome member of the rebellion, daughter and sister, stand-up comic, cyclist, basketball player, Harry Potter freak, triathlete, apprentice gardener, and an anti-oppression/social justice nerd.
email: jms13@u.washington.edu

Valerie Shapiro

graduated with high honors in Psychology from Colgate University. Since that time, she has earned her masters degree in Social Service Management from the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and has held roles as a school social worker, outpatient therapist, and program consultant in support of children's behavioral health. Her most recent position of full-time employment was at the Devereux Institute of Clinical Training and Research where she conducted research and developed community prevention programs utilizing strength-based approaches to promote the healthy social-emotional development of children. Through this work, she has had the opportunity to serve on national committees to advocate for universal social-emotional learning practices, present at national conferences, and publish in scholarly journals. She was selected to be the 2007 Gottlieb Fellow and awarded summer funding to participate in the NIH Multidisciplinary Predoctoral Clinical Research Training Program. In 2008-2009, she will work with the Social Development Research Group as an NIMH Prevention Trainee using a prevention science framework to research risk and protection factors in child development, the implementation of community-level interventions, and questions regarding the scalability and sustainability of tested-effective programs.
email: ShapiroV@u.washington.edu

Quentin Red Eagle Smith

was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. His mother is full-blooded Sioux from Montana, and his father, deceased, was from the Umpqua tribe located near Grand Ronde Oregon. Quentin is the sixth of eight children. He lived and worked for Southern Cal. Edison in Los Angeles for four years until he got tired of the smog and over-population and moved back to Seattle. Then he worked as a bus driver for King County Metro for nearly ten years until returning to school.
Quentin earned Master’s degree in Vocational Rehabilitation from Western Washington University in Bellingham in 2004. Since then he has been a Voc/Rehab counselor in the Olympia area working mostly with the Native American populace. In his own words: “Throughout my lifetime I’ve felt that I’ve been a one-man crusader for Native American Rights, equality, and basic common respect, and now I find myself impatiently waiting for my studies to begin in the fall of 2007 so I can carry on with my crusade.”
Quentin’s focus will be working closely with the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute in all capacities to promote the health and welfare of indigenous populations.
email: quents@u.washington.edu

Aster Solomon Tecle

earned an MSW from University of Washington (2008) with a concentration in Contextual Community Practice, and an MA in Sustainable International Development from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University (2002), which deepened her knowledge and expertise in the global/local divide, sustainability and environmental justice. She has an extensive background in participatory action research, critical development studies, community organizing, education/adult literacy, women’s income generating programs, and as a project coordinator with the National Union of Eritrean Women and the Ministry of Education in Eritrea. Her research focused on ethnically diversified community-based participatory research and participatory rural appraisal, addressing ex/inclusion and policy practice gaps in meeting the needs and demands, of disadvantaged groups.
Aster’s research interests include immigrants/refugees, farm workers, youth, single mothers, globalization and environmental justice, and international social work.
Her current professional work centers around the politics of “dis-placed” youth; global dis-place-ment and global-local social welfare issues; culture-power-place; globalization and food (in)security; and interpretive methodologies.
email: astert@u.washington.edu

Cindy Sousa

holds an MSW from Portland State University and a Masters in Public Health with a Certificate in Global Health from the University of Washington. Her work experience includes program provision for and management of peer health education, advocacy, and counseling programs for homeless, immigrant, adjudicated, or underserved youth, adults, and families. She is a board member and hotline counselor for a local organization that provides advocacy and information to members of the military and their families.
Her current areas of research focus are trauma, prevention, resiliency and mental health, particularly the impacts and potential intergenerational transmission of recurring trauma from political/state violence and the phenomenon of war and occupation. In addition, her research background and interests include health behavior change; position, power and anti-oppression as they relate to social work on each practice level; and the history and practice of effective community organizing.
She works as a Research Assistant with Dr. Todd Herrenkohl, investigating resilience and developmental consequences of child abuse and children’s exposure to domestic violence with data from a longitudinal study. In addition, she is currently leading an original study in Palestine to examine the impacts of occupation on mental health and potential areas of resilience such as family and social cohesion, education, religion, political involvement and empowerment.
email: csousa@u.washington.edu

Karen Tabb

has an extensive background, working most recently as the Community Research Coordinator for Project Research Engagement and Education for Community Health (Project REECH) in the Center for Reducing Health Disparities of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine at MetroHealth Medical Center. She returned to Northeast Ohio to pursue her interest in community health and reducing health disparities in marginalized populations. Karen previously worked for the University of Michigan Laboratory on Race and Self-Destructive Behaviors and for Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Detroit Partnership, a division of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Detroit Urban Research Center. She obtained her MSW in Social Policy Evaluation and Community Organizing for Health from The University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. She received her Bachelor Degree of Arts in Sociology from Eastern Michigan University, where she now serves as a Director on the Alumni Association Board. Her research interest include racial and ethnic health disparities, risk-taking behaviors based on self-identification, barriers and access to care, community health, and community-based participatory research.

Miriam Valdovinos

completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Psychology at California State University, Fullerton.  Miriam’s most recent work experience was within the juvenile justice system in Texas, where she was the Research and Statistics Coordinator for a county-run detention center and juvenile probation department.  Previous to working with youth in the juvenile justice system, Miriam spent several years working with Latina victims of intimate partner abuse.  As she pursues a doctorate degree, she is interested in combining both her previous research experience and her field work in her future research endeavors.  She is interested in investigating intimate partner abuse and its deleterious effects that plague our communities.  Specifically, she wants to investigate intimate partner abuse and the effects it has on Latina women and their children.  Another area she would like to investigate is the effect intimate partner abuse has on adolescent children.  She wants to identify appropriate interventions for youth that have witnessed partner abuse among their parental figures before they themselves begin dating and they repeat the cycle of abuse.  Ultimately, through her research she wants to be a catalyst in the field of intimate partner abuse.
email: miriam80@u.washington.edu

William Vesneski

As a doctoral student, Bill's research focuses on the implementation of federal child welfare policy, particularly the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) and its provisions regarding the termination of parental rights. Bill earned his MSW in 1998 at the University of Washington and his JD in 1991 from the Seattle University School of Law. For the last 10 years he has worked in a variety of program evaluation and applied research positions for organizations such as Zero to Three, the National Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Association, the Oregon Department of Human Services, the Sallie Mae Foundation, and The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Prior to his work in applied research he served as a public defender in juvenile court for more than five years representing parents in foster care proceedings and youth facing criminal prosecution.
email: vesneski@u.washington.edu

Eric Waithaka

is a 2005 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, earning a Masters in Social Work. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Community Development from Daystar University in Kenya. He has practice experiences in various capacities, as a credit officer for a micro-financing program for women groups, a program assistant for a girl-child education program and a rehabilitation program for commercial sex workers. He has also worked as a youth leader and as a community support worker for young individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MR/DD). He currently works as a Research Associate with the Institute of Applied Research in St. Louis, Missouri. He conducts evaluation research for social programs and services in the areas of child maltreatment, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse treatment and jail diversion initiatives.
Eric’s research interests are in the areas of youth, poverty, inequalities (asset and income), social institutions, and institutional change. He is also interested in asset-building policies, social welfare, and public policy and economic development in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). His studies will focus on the functioning of societal institutions and processes within a country and how these influence the existence, extent, and de facto maintenance of poverty and inequalities affecting the youth.
email: waithaka@u.washington.edu

Mark Williams

earned his MSW from the University of Washington (2006) and a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt University (1992). Mark worked most recently as a grief counselor for Providence Hospice of Seattle and a research assistant with the Relationship Research Institute. Mark is interested in examining the experiences of LGBT elders and the impact of intimate partner relationships on their social, financial, and physical well-being. In light of contemporary debates about the merits of civil recognition of same-sex partner relationships, Mark would like to study how LGBT elders define their relationships for themselves, and how those relationships shape their quality life. What are the benefits and costs of negotiating same-sex intimate partner relationships particularly for LGBT elders whose lives span a remarkable evolution in access to and open debate about civil protections and rights? Within the diverse communities represented as LGBT, Mark is interested in examining how multiple identities, including race, class, gender, and gender identity influence the role that intimate partner relationships play in impacting the well being of LGBT elders. He is particularly intrigued by the variable of socioeconomic class and the role that poverty plays in the options and choices LGBT elders face as they negotiate their relationships. Mark hopes to bring to bear the lens of quantitative methods to examine the lives and relationships of LGBT older adults.
email: revmark@u.washington.edu

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