Lecturers
Jane Abrams, DSW, LCSW
jbabrams@sp2.upenn.edu
Jane Abrams is a Lecturer at the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, where she teaches Social Work Practice and Trauma in the MSW program. She holds an MSW from the Simmons College School of Social Work and a DSW from the University of Pennsylvania. For over 20 years Dr. Abrams has maintained a private psychotherapy practice in Philadelphia. She provides clinical supervision and specializes in treating couples and adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Prior to establishing her practice in Philadelphia she worked as a Senior Clinical Social Worker in Healthcare Associates, an outpatient multidisciplinary practice at Beth Israel Hospital (now Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) in Boston, MA. As a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, she provided clinical supervision for the MSW staff in the Outpatient Psychiatry Department at Beth Israel. She is currently involved in a qualitative research study of how heterosexual married couples in the U.S. repair breaks in their connection to their spouses and how they experience the process of repair.
Stacey L. Barrenger, AM
sbarre@sp2.upenn.edu
Stacey Barrenger is a lecturer and PhD student of Social Welfare at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice and received her master’s degree from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. She has research experience in conducting diagnostic interviews and has worked on studies involving community reentry services for persons with serious mental illness involved in the criminal justice system. Stacey has over 13 years of direct practice experience including transitioning people to the community from a state psychiatric hospital and supervising two assertive community treatment (ACT) teams. For her dissertation, she plans on exploring the impact of the risk environment on community reentry for persons with serious mental illness leaving prison.
Margaret Barry, MSS, LSW
mbarry.swc@verizon.net
Ms. Barry is the co-founder and Executive Director of Social Work Connection, a nonprofit organization that provides school-based and community-based social work and behavioral health services to school-age children and their families, and supports public schools (both traditional and charter) to pursue and to achieve excellence in education. Services provided by the organization to children and families include counseling, case management, educational supports, and information and referrals. From its inception, Social Work Connection has partnered with the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice to serve as a field placement in school social work within local public schools and to provide a training program for graduate students in social work. Ms. Barry’s past experience includes the following: Urban community development, including school construction, through the Peace Corps in La Paz, Bolivia and Jersey City, NJ; youth consultation and family services; individual and family clinical practice; professional and organizational consultation to the Philadelphia Schools Collaborative on the development and implementation of school-based social work; and Principal Investigator for a 3-year federally-funded program to increase parent and community involvement in public education in inner-city Philadelphia.
Sandra R. Bauman, MSW
bauman@sp2.upenn.edu
Ms. Bauman is the Associate Director of Field Education at the Penn School of Social Policy & Practice. Her major responsibilities include: placing MSW students in internships, finding and evaluating internship sites, maintaining a database of field sites, teaching a seminar for new field instructors, consulting with the practice sequence, and general oversight of the field education department. She has been at the school for more than 28 years. Her outside activities include: serving on the administrative review committee for Delaware Count Children and Youth and serving as a Board member of Planned Parenthood and Hillel of Greater Philadelphia.
Sandra L. Bloom, MD
s13132020@msn.com
Dr. Bloom is a psychiatrist and the President and CEO of Community Works, a systems consulting firm. Dr. Bloom served as Founder and Executive Director of the Sanctuary programs from 1980-2001, inpatient psychiatric programs for the treatment of trauma-related disorders. She is a Past-President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) and in 1998 received the Sarah Haley Award for Clinical Excellence from the ISTSS. She is the Past-President of the Philadelphia chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility and during her tenure helped to develop award winning domestic violence training programs for health care settings. In 1999-2000 she chaired the Task Force on Family Violence for Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Mike Fisher. From 1998-2001 Dr. Bloom served as the Saul Z. Cohen Chair at the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services in New York, introducing the Sanctuary concepts to a large residential program for children and adolescents in Hawthorne, New York. In Winter 2000, NIMH awarded a three-year grant to study the implementation of the Sanctuary Model into this residential setting and Dr. Bloom serves as co-investigator to this grant awarded through Colombia University. In September, 2001, she began implementing a "Safe Schools, Safe Communities" grant for the Atlantic County New Jersey School District with the Sanctuary Model as the prevention part of the project aimed at reducing school violence and improving school climate in the public school system. She and her team are also consulting with the Julia Dyckman Andrus Memorial Center in Yonkers, New York to introduce the Sanctuary Model to their residential treatment program, school, and day hospital program for children under the age of fifteen. Interim House is a residential program for women who are substance abusers and trauma survivors who have spent the last year learning the Sanctuary Model. Pace School, one of Pennsylvania's approved private schools and day hospital program for emotionally disturbed children located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has also consulted with the Sanctuary team to apply the concepts to their program. The acute care psychiatric unit at Salem Hospital, Oregon have received training in the Sanctuary Model in the past year have improved their program dramatically while decreasing the use of seclusion and restraint by over 75%. She is the author of Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies, and co-author of Bearing Witness: Violence and Collective Responsibility.
Danna Bodenheimer, LCSW, DSW
dbodenheimer@gmail.com
Danna Bodenheimer, LCSW, DSW has served as a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania since 2009. She teaches electives and core classes including Advanced Social Work Practice and Anxiety and Depression. She was a member of the first cohort of graduates from Penn’s DSW program. Danna received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Smith College and a post-baccalaureate degree from Columbia University. Danna splits her time between teaching at Penn, a private practice in Center City, Philadelphia and writing. She has published on topics related to love in psychotherapy, eating disorders and the history of relational work. Danna is currently working on a book about getting started in the field of clinical social work, incorporating research done on over 100 social workers experiences, through White Hat Press. Clinically, Danna’s practice focuses on issues related to GLBT identity formation, trauma and addiction. Danna received the 2011-2012 Award for Excellence in Teaching from SP2. She was also recently selected as a fellow for American Association Psychoanalytic Association for the 2012-2013 academic year. In this role she will be presenting her clinical work at multiple nationwide conferences.
Casey Bohrman, MSW
caseybohrman@yahoo.com
Casey Bohrman is a PhD candidate at the School of Social Policy and Practice, where she also received her MSW degree. Her research focuses on the interactions between the mental health and criminal justice system. She has been involved in prisoner advocacy through the Pennsylvania Prison Society and has worked in mental health residential and case management programs. She currently works part-time for Project REACH, Delaware County's mobile psychiatric crisis team. Her dissertation focuses on the impact of community context of police officer perceptions of people who may have a mental illness.
Dennis Brunn, MSW, PhD
dbrunn@sp2.upenn.edu
Dennis Brunn brings over 40 years’ experience as an organizer, leader, teacher and researcher in the field of community organizing and community development. He has taught and supervised interns in community organizing and development while on the faculties of State University of New York/Buffalo, Bryn Mawr College, Temple University, University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers/Camden, and LaSalle University. Volunteer experiences in civil rights in Boston in the 1960s sparked a life-long interest in understanding and supporting efforts of poor and working people to change their communities and workplaces. He taught community practice and social theory at Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research in the 1970s where he developed field settings with welfare rights, farm workers, and unemployed organizing initiatives. As director of the LaSalle University Urban Studies and Community Services Center during the 1980s, he brought faculty and student resources together with grassroots community development groups. In the early 1990s he served as policy staff for a Philadelphia City Council member. Later he trained community organizers to work in the affordable housing field in New Jersey, and in the past decade he co-founded, raised funding and directed the Statewide Education Organizing Committee of NJ which has organized public school parents in five low-income communities in northern NJ for education reform and equity. His doctoral research and current interests continue to focus on the dynamics of organizing for racial and economic justice, community building, labor and social movements, and the history of American radicalism. He has a Ph.D. in sociology from Washington University, an MSW in Community Organization from Wayne State University, and graduated in sociology from Brandeis University.
Anthony F. Bruno, DSW
afbruno@sp2.upenn.edu
Anthony F. Bruno, MSW, DSW, is a graduate of Bishop Neumann High School in South Philadelphia. A Professor of Social Sciences at Community College of Philadelphia (30 years plus), Dr. Bruno teaches criminal justice, criminology, and juvenile justice, and holds the College’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. An adjunct faculty at the
University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice (13 years), he teaches (or has taught) in the HBSE, Practice, Racism, and Research Sequences and is a recipient of the School of Social Work’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 1995. He is co-secretariat of The Juvenile Justice Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, and an alumnus of the Penn School of Social Work.
Peter Capper, LCSW
Peter Capper currently teaches a Foundation Practice class at SP2. He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has had more than 30 years experience in direct practice in many different settings and on both sides of the Atlantic. He grew up in the North of England and has a history degree from Cambridge University. He completed his MSW at the University of Sussex with a specialty in Psychiatric Social Work. He worked for three years in a public sector Social Services agency in East London, doing generic social work with all populations in a community setting. He then came to Philadelphia under a Fulbright Foundation Program to work in the child welfare system at the Children’s Aid Society of PA. He did a year-long, full-time training in Child and Family Therapy at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, where he worked in the Partial and Inpatient Unit working with complex therapeutic systems and the most challenging of child/teenager/family difficulties. Peter returned to the UK to work in a Child Guidance Clinic and a therapeutic day school for emotionally disturbed teenagers in North London. He then returned to the Philadelphia child Guidance Clinic where he became a Treatment Team Leader in a children’s unit, teenager unit and with the Apartment Program which hospitalized whole families for very intensive milieu treatment. He became involved in family therapy training during this period, as an Adjunct Faculty in the Family Therapy Training Center. More recently he has been in private practice in Plymouth Meeting and Elkins Park, specializing in systemic work with children, teens, couples and individual adults, combined with professional supervision and training. He is the Director of Emotional Support at the Crefeld School, where he is a school administrator involved in the overall functioning of the school as well as supervising and leading the clinical team. Also the school has an intern program for 5 graduate students, to help them develop skills in working effectively with teens, families and in schools. Peter has supervised Penn interns for many years and is excited to be joining the Faculty to see the other side of professional education.
Brother Robb Carter, Jr. , MSW
robertec@upenn.edu
Brother Robb Carter is the Associate Director of the African-American Resource Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a performing artist and co-founder of PLP TheUnity Performance Art Ensemble. Brother Robb Carter is also a therapist providing domestic abuse counseling at Menergy in Philadelphia. Brother Carter began his professional career as a Child Care Aide working with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school age students. Brother Robb Carter is also a published author and poet. Mr. Carter’s latest published work as a contributing author is in the book “Playing with Anger: Teaching Coping Skills to African American Boys through Athletics and Culture” edited by Howard C. Stevenson, Jr. Ph.D. (Praeger Publishers 2003). ” He has lectured throughout the country and abroad and is considered a leading expert on African and African-American History and Culture, Racial Socialization, The Effects of Trauma and White Supremacy Racism. In conclusion, Brother Robb Carter is the Spiritual Caretaker of the Peace, Leadership and Arts Camp in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Mary M. Cavanaugh, PhD, MFT
mary.cavanaugh@hunter.cuny.edu
Mary M. Cavanaugh is an Associate Professor in the Lois V. and Samuel J. Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. Her primary research focus is on the design and testing of preventative interventions that may decrease the potential risk for violence in intimate relationships. Dr. Cavanaugh has co-authored Randomized Controlled Trials: Design and Implementation for Community-Based Psychosocial Interventions (with Phyllis Solomon and Jeffrey Draine—Oxford University Press, 2009). Her forthcoming book is Intimate Violence and Abuse in Families (with Richard J. Gelles—Oxford University Press, in press). She has authored and co-authored journal articles and book chapters on intimate partner violence and on the theoretical foundations of violence, crime, and delinquency. Dr. Cavanaugh earned a joint PhD in Social Welfare and Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007.
Fernando Chang-Muy, MA, JD
fchangm1@sp2.upenn.edu
Fernando Chang-Muy is the Thomas O'Boyle Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law where he teaches Refugee Law. He also teaches courses on Non Profit Management and Immigration for Social Workers at Penn’s Graduate School of Social Policy and Practice. In addition to teaching, he combines his experience in academia and operations, as principal and founder of Solutions International, providing independent management consulting, facilitation and training to philanthropic institutions, non profit organizations and government entities. His areas of expertise include designing and facilitating large group, task-focused strategic planning, board governance, staff internal communications and performance, and resource development.He has served as Legal Officer with both the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO), AIDS Program. Before joining the UN, he was a staff attorney at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia serving as Director of the Southeast Asian Refugee Project, providing free legal aid to low-income people in Philadelphia. He is also past founding director of the Liberty Center for Survivors of Torture, a project of Lutheran Children and Family Services, established to serve newcomers fleeing human rights violations.He serves on the Boards of local public interest organizations, government, and foundations, including the Board of the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation, and The Philadelphia Awards. In 2008, Philadelphia Mayor Nutter appointed him as a Commissioner to the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations. He is former Board member of the Delaware Valley Grantmakers, and Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Coalition.
Cynthia Closs, DSW, LCSW
ccloss@alumni.upenn.edu
Cynthia Closs is a licensed clinical social worker who earned her Master of Social Service degree from Bryn Mawr College and her doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Presently, she is working at Mazzoni Center providing outpatient treatment to persons who identify as queer. She has over thirteen years experience in nonprofit, direct practice settings. Cynthia has been trained in EMDR therapy, completed three years of intensive training in Gestalt therapy, and has most recently focused her studies on adult psychodynamic psychotherapy. She is specifically interested in relational and trauma theory and practice and her clinical work focuses on persons living with HIV/AIDS, trauma, addiction, and young adults who identify as queer.
Elisabeth Conston, MSS, LCSW
econston@sp2.upenn.edu
Elisabeth Conston is a licensed clinical social worker with over 30 years of direct practice experience in the field. She has worked within a variety of social service settings, providing individual, family and group counseling, consultation, training, program planning and community outreach. She taught Advanced Practice at the University of Pennsylvania School of social work for five years and has been teaching Foundation Practice since 1999. She is currently the Coordinator of the Social Work Internship Training Program at Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of Pennsylvania. She has extensive experience supervising advanced year MSW students as well as working within the University setting, providing brief treatment, outreach and group therapy for Penn undergraduate and graduate students. Ms. Conston is also a partner in Spring Garden Psychological Associates, providing a broad range of psychotherapy services to individuals, couples and families. Spring Garden Psychological Associates contracts with the Department of Human Services to provide evaluation and treatment for children who have been sexually abused. Ms. Conston’s specialty areas in her clinical practice include women, gay and lesbian individuals and couples, and survivors of trauma.
Melissa Dichter, MSW, PhD
mdichter@sp2.upenn.edu
Melissa Dichter received her MSW (2002) and PhD (2009) from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice and her BA (1998) with a concentration in Child Development and English at Tufts University. She is a health services researcher at the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP) at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center as well as a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice. Melissa has practice experience in individual and group psychotherapy and psychosocial education with children, community-based child abuse prevention, and intimate partner violence prevention and intervention. Melissa's research interests focus on violence against intimate partners and children, and the social service, health, and criminal legal systems' responses to these issues.
Matthew Ditty, MSW, LCSW
mdit@sp2.upenn.edu
Mr. Ditty is a social worker and mental health clinician. He began his career in the Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and continued it with over seven years as a psychotherapist in private practice. He has held part-time and consulting positions with the United States Navy, the Positive Psychology Center, Recovery at Penn, and others, performing tasks such as counseling 911 survivors, providing clinical supervision, and enacting treatment protocol for several research studies. Within Mr. Ditty’s range of mental health experience, his primary expertise and passion is for survivors of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as life-threatening coping strategies including suicide, self-injury, and addiction. His current research focus is the dissemination and implementation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and other evidence-based treatments.
Nora Dowd Eisenhower, JD
eisendowd@gmail.com
Nora Dowd Eisenhower is currently a principal at OnePoint Public and Private Solutions, LLC. She has advised leading members of the private and public sector on healthy aging and wellness programs and serves on the Board of the Institute of Aging at the University of Pennsylvania and the Fair Food Farmstand. Prior to founding OnePoint, Nora was Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Aging from 2002 thru 2008. She managed an extensive network of services including, home and community based services, senior community centers, pharmaceutical benefits, transportation, adult day and protective services for older people. She advised the Governor, cabinet officers and members of the General Assembly on diverse issues affecting older people. She helped to coordinate a historic bipartisan effort to expand the PACE pharmaceutical assistance program, making more than 130,000 additional older adults eligible for life-sustaining prescription benefits. Under her leadership, Pennsylvania expanded the availability of community-based services for older adults. These efforts have allowed an ever growing number of older Pennsylvanians to receive care and services in the location of their first choice - their homes and communities. She also broadened Department outreach to underserved populations and initiated comprehensive efforts to prepare the aging services network for the changing demographics that face the nation in the coming years. She expanded civic engagement opportunities for older volunteers. Prior to her service as Secretary, she served as the AARP state director for Pennsylvania from 2000 till 2002. She lives with her family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Richard Estes, DSW
restes@sp2.upenn.edu
Richard J. Estes is Professor of Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He holds an A.B. degree from La Salle University in Philadelphia and graduate degrees in social work from the University of Pennsylvania (Master of Social Work) and the University of California at Berkeley (Doctor of Social Welfare). He also holds a post-master’s Certificate in Psychiatric Social Work from the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas. Dr. Estes’ international activities have been extensive. Among other assignments, he has held visiting Professorships in Iran, Norway, and the People’s Republic of China, Morocco, South Korea, Hawaii, Ja-pan, Mongolia, the Russian Federation, Belgium, Sweden, Mexico, Hong Kong and elsewhere. In the United States, Dr. Estes is founding President of the Philadelphia Area Chapter of the Society for Inter-national Development (SID). He is a former president of the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education (GADE), and is a former Chair of the Council on External Relations of the Global Commis-sion of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). In 2004 he was elected President of the Interna-tional Society For Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS). Until 2010, Dr. Estes served as Chair of the graduate concentration in Social and Economic Development (SED where he also directed the School’s international programs. Read more.
Michelle Evans-Chase
meva@sp2.upenn.edu
Michelle Evans-Chase is a lecturer and PhD candidate at the School of Social Policy & Practice where the focus of her work has been on the design and evaluation of programming for youth in the juvenile justice system informed by neuropsychosocial theories of adolescence. Ms. Chase received her master’s degree in social psychology from San Francisco State and spent 9 years teaching a variety of undergraduate psychology and sociology courses prior to returning to school. Ms. Chase’s research experience includes 9 years as project coordinator of field projects in correctional and community settings. Ms. Chase recently designed and is currently guiding the implementation of two risk-reduction programs for adolescents: a Mindfulness Meditation intervention for incarcerated youth, which she is evaluating using a randomized control design for her dissertation; and an ocean-based mentoring program for low-income youth in American Samoa.
Ariel H. Feinberg, LCSW, MBE
arielf@mail.med.upenn.edu
Ariel Feinberg is a licensed clinical social worker and is currently employed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Philadelphia Medical Center. At the medical center, she serves as the Ethics Consult Coordinator and works mainly within the inpatient medicine department. Ms. Feinberg sits on the VA National Social Work Public Relations Committee and is a selected participant of the 2011 Leadership Development Institute. Her direct practice experience is concentrated in healthcare, ranging from cardiology, transplants, neurology, trauma, orthopedics, and brain injury as well as basic general medicine/surgery. She is a graduate of the School of Social Policy & Practice as well as a graduate of the Bioethics program at The University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Ms. Feinberg resides with her partner in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.
Marc Felizzi, PhD, LCSW
felizzi@sp2.upenn.edu
Marc Felizzi is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, with over 20 years experience working with children, adolescents and families. In addition to his teaching, he maintains a private practice in Wilmington, DE. His primary areas of interest are working with adolescents, and in the areas of trauma, sexual abuse perpetration and victimization, family issues and attachment. His work in juvenile sexual offending has enabled him to present at a number of national conferences on such topics as juvenile sex offender registration issues, sexual offending prevention and treatment of juvenile sex offenders. He is a member of the Delaware Sex Offender Management Board, and has chaired the Board's Juvenile Assessment, Treatment and Monitoring sub-committee. Marc's work in writing the standards and guidelines for the treatment of juvenile offenders in Delaware enabled the state to become one of the first states to comply with Federal reporting guidelines for offenders. In addition, he is a member of the Association for the Treatment of Sex Offenders (ATSA), and is a national member of ATSA's Policy committee. He has written a number of newspaper and magazine articles discussing the effects of juvenile sex offender registration and treatment. Marc received his PhD in Social Work from Widener University, and studied the relationship between emotional abuse, parent/caregiver instability, attachment and juvenile sex offending for his dissertation.
Rosemary Frasso, PhD, CPH
Dr. Rosemary Frasso is a lecturer in the Public Health program (Family Medicine and Community Health), and the School of Social Policy & Practice. Rosemary, an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy & Practice, was awarded a PhD in 2011. Prior to coming to Penn Rosemary earned two Masters Degrees at the Harvard School of Public Health (one in Maternal Child Health and the other in Society, Human Development and Health) and she holds national certification in Public Health (CPH). Rosemary has been teaching in the public health and social work arenas for several years and was awarded The Center for Teaching and Learning's Fellowship in 2009/2010. She is currently working with Ian Bennett, M.D. , PhD (Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health) and Drs. Phyllis Solomon and Steve Marcus on a project examining the impact of maternal literacy on pediatric health care utilization. Rosemary has extensive experience in the healthcare setting, and has a clinical and administrative background. Additionally, Rosemary worked for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on projects related to improving access to mammography for women with disabilities. Rosemary's research interests include improving access to physical and mental health services for vulnerable populations, maternal child health, health disparities and health literacy.
Andrew Fussner, MSW
afussner@sp2.upenn.edu
Andrew Fussner, MSW, is a social worker and child and family therapist. He has 25 years experience in working with children, adolescents, and families in a variety of contexts including residential, out-patient, and home based settings. After 19 years on the staff of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, he worked for 12 years in the Head Start program of the School District of Philadelphia. Currently employed as a trainer and consultant in child and family therapy in a number of different agencies in New York and Philadelphia. Mr. Fussner serves on the board of directors in the Youth Services Division of Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Philadelphia. Mr. Fussner is also licensed as a social worker in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and was appointed to the Field committee for the DSM5.
Carly Goldberg, DSW, LCSW
gcarly@sp2.upenn.edu
Carly Goldberg, DSW, LCSW received both her Bachelor of Science in social work and Masters of Social Work from New York University and her Doctorate in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the founder of Woman Centered, a social action organization that empowers forward thinking women to effect change within themselves and the world around them. Dr. Goldberg is also currently in private practice in the Greater Philadelphia area specializing in women’s psychological development, traumatic stress, and emotional wellness. As a licensed clinical social worker, Carly has over ten years’ experience providing long-term, short-term, and crisis-oriented counseling and therapy; group therapy; and case management services in diverse, multicultural settings. Throughout her career Dr. Goldberg has served mental health, psychiatric, drug and alcohol, medical, HIV/AIDS, and end-of-life populations, as well as victims of abuse and survivors of trauma. Her current areas of specialization and interest focus on feminist theory in social work practice and pedagogy; trauma informed social work practice; globalization, transnationalism, and social work; critical social work pedagogy; gendered mental health; and women’s psychological development. Dr. Goldberg’s dissertation topic explored the use of global critical race feminism for direct social work practice, supporting her work in the community with diverse ethnic groups, particularly those who are survivors of trauma and torture.
Bianca Harper, DSW, LCSW
harperb@sp2.upenn.edu
Bianca Harper received her Doctorate in Social Work at the University of Pennsylvania.She earned her Masters of Social Work degree from Arizona State University and a Bachelor's degree in Special Education from the University of Arizona. Bianca is a licensed clinical social worker and provides individual therapy, group therapy, and family therapy for children and adolescents who have been sexually abused. Additionally, Bianca has direct practice experience in child forensic interviewing, victim advocacy, crisis counseling, school social work, and early childhood development. Bianca’s primary research interests include child maltreatment, child welfare, interpersonal violence, traumatic stress,and trauma informed treatment. For her dissertation, Biancaexamined family reunification experiences after sibling sexual abuse.
Lina Hartocollis, MSS, PhD, LCSW
lhartoco@sp2.upenn.edu
Lina Hartocollis is Adjunct Assistant Professor, Dean of Students and Director of the Clinical Doctorate in Social Work (DSW) Program at the School of Social Policy & Practice. She has been at Penn since 1997, where in addition to her administrative responsibilities, she has taught courses on foundation social work practice, advanced clinical social work practice, social work practice with children and adolescents, and mental health diagnosis. Before coming to Penn, Dr. Hartocollis taught courses on clinical social work practice, human behavior, and social theory in the Masters of Social Work programs at Smith College and Bryn Mawr College. Before she began devoting all of her energies to higher education administration and teaching, Dr. Hartocollis was a practicing psychotherapist, providing therapy to children, adults, couples and families. Her scholarly and practice interests include mental health diagnosis, psychological trauma and dissociative disorders. In 2010, Dr. Hartocollis was appointed to the Pennslvania State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Professional Counselors.
Eileen R. Heisman, MSW, ACFRE
eheisman@nptrust.org
Eileen R. Heisman, ACFRE, is the President and CEO of NPT. She is a nationally recognized expert on charitable and planned giving. Ms. Heisman has a bachelor's degree with honors in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University and a master's degree in social work with a major in social program evaluation from the University of Michigan. She is a member of the third Wharton Fellows Class at the University of Pennsylvania and completed the Executive Program for Philanthropy Leaders at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. In addition to her position at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice, Ms. Heisman is currently a member of the faculty at Leadership Philadelphia and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Michigan's School of Social Work graduate program. She serves on the Advisory Board at New York University’s George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, the Community Foundation of Singapore and the University of Michigan's School of Social Work. She is also a member of the Board of Directors at the Arden Theater Company. Ms. Heisman has been interviewed about philanthropy and donor-advised funds on a number of international broadcast outlets and by nearly every national newspaper and major trade publication. She was among the first fundraising professionals to earn the distinguished ACFRE certification. In 2011, she was named by NonProfit Times as one of their Power and Influence Top 50, an annual listing of the 50 most influential executives in the philanthropic sector.
Karen Hudson, MSW, LSW
hudsonk@email.chop.edu
Karen M. Hudson, MSW, LSW is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work. She is currently Program Leader of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Homeless Health Initiative (HHI). She also serves on the faculty of the CHOP Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program. Prior to this her experiences included the development and coordination of a Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation funded welfare-to-work training program and the Caring Student Helpers Disability Awareness training program. Ms. Hudson has over twenty years of social work supervisory and managerial experience. She co-founded and served as the program coordinator of the Children’s Seashore House Safe Kids clinic, an abuse referral clinic for children with special needs who were suspected of being abused. She is also co-developer of the Family Care Curriculum, a train-the-trainer parenting model uniquely designed for families in homeless shelters. She has presented at numerous local, national and international conferences. Her presentations and publications have focused on her work and her passion around homelessness advocacy, reducing health disparities, promoting effective parenting skills, cultural diversity and child abuse prevention.
Allan Irving, MSW, PhD
airving3@uwo.ca
Over a thirty-five year academic career Allan Irving has taught at the University of Western Ontario, the University of Toronto, and Widener University. Areas of teaching include: social policy, history and philosophy of social work and social welfare, community social work practice, health and mental health policy, postmodernism and social work practice, and the arts and humanities and social work practice. Among his publications are: co-edited, Reading Foucault for Social Work; single-authored, Brock Chisholm: Doctor to the World (a biography of the first Director of the World Health Organization). He retired from full time teaching in June 2011. Current interests are lecturing and writing about environmental issues, transgender subjects, and philosophy and film. He is a founding member of an advocacy group in Swarthmore on LGBTQ issues.
Charles Johnson, PhD
drcharlie3@verizon.net
Dr. Charles Johnson, PhD, is the retired Director of Court and Community Services at the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. He administered through multiple subordinate levels the major operational aspects of DHS/JJS and managed the contracts of over 70 private social services providers. As the senior manager he was responsible for planning, developing, administering, evaluating and coordinating the implementation of the goals and objectives of the section reporting directly to the Deputy Commissioner. Prior to that post he served as the Counseling and Group Therapy Director of the Options Substance Abuse program at Philadelphia County Prisons. He is a certified trainer for the Regional Training Centers under the auspices of the University of Pittsburgh and is a certified addictions therapist. He currently is employed as an adjunct professor at Temple University where he has taught for 22 years and is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Johnson is also a member of the Philadelphia County Disproportionate Minority Contact Committee and in conjunction with the District Attorney’s Office, the Defender’s Association, the Philadelphia Police Department, the Septa Police, the Sheriff’s office, the Philadelphia Department of Human Services and the Community of Private Social Service Providers trains new recruits at the Philadelphia Police Academy on the interaction between law enforcement officers and youth. He conducts 8 trainings for the Regional Training Centers and for the Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth and Families. He trains child welfare professionals (administrators, supervisors and case managers). His trainings include: The Juvenile Justice System; Dependency and Delinquency; Delinquency, Substance Abuse and Early Sexual Activity; Sex and Drugs; Alcohol and Other Drugs; Case Management for Substance Abusing Families; Racism and Service Delivery; and Spirituality and the 12 Steps. In addition he has been a consultant for private social service providers for 17 years.
Christina Kang-Yi
dooyeon@mail.med.upenn.edu
Dr. Kang-Yi is a research scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Policy Lab and a clinical associate at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research. Her research focuses on mental health needs of children in low-income families, foster care and kinship care. She has extensive research experiences in mental health program evaluation and quality of psychosocial wellbeing care. The major projects she has worked include the Effect of School-Based Mental Health Programs on Children’s Behavioral Symptoms and School Outcomes, the Children’s Stability and Wellbeing Study, Impact of School-Based Mental Health Program on Children’s Mental Health Service Utilization, Effectiveness of Community-Based Intervention on Depression for Older Adults with Heart Disease, and the Impact of Staffing Resources, Nurse Aide Training, and Medicaid Census on Quality of Care and Quality of Life at New York State Nursing Homes. She currently works with the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health, the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services as well as other nonprofit organizations to promote the wellbeing of children in low-income families, foster care and kinship care. She is also a member of the Philadelphia Kinship Care Committee. She received her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and Ph.D. from the Columbia University School of Social Work, and did her postdoctoral fellowship at the Penn Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research. She received the national junior scholars’ research award from the Gerontological Society of America’s Research, Social Policy, and Practice Section in 2008.
Kia Kerrin, MSW
wilsonk@mail.med.upenn.edu
Kia Kerrin is the Technical Director of the Recruitment, Outcomes and Assessment Resource Core at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Her primary duties are to help facilitate research implementation and recruitment plans for cancer center investigators. This includes staff hiring, training, and supervising; reviewing protocols, consent forms, staff training manuals, recruitment documents and other related study documents. Kia Kerrin has 10 years of research experience and has been involved in creating television, newspaper and radio advertisements, implementing study protocols, also, counseling, interviewing and moderating. Before working at the Cancer Center she worked in the department of Psychiatry at the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center at Penn where she was a Coordinator and Counselor. Ms. Kerrin has served as a Smoking Cessation Counselor and Supervisor (for individual and group sessions), and has assisted in the development of counseling protocols. Ms. Kerrin has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Temple University and a Master of Social Work degree from Penn. Kia Kerrin is a DSW (Clinical Doctorate in Social Work) candidate at the School of Social Policy and Practice at Penn. Her dissertation focuses on researching the possible relationship between levels of spiritual well being and quit rates in a smoking cessation program.
Jeff Klein, MBA
kleinja@wharton.upenn.edu
Director, Wharton Leadership Program
Lecturer, The Wharton School and The School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania
Jeff Klein is the Director of the Wharton Leadership Program and a Lecturer at The Wharton School and the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. As Director, Jeff is responsible for the portfolio of curricular and co-curricular leadership development programs available to Wharton MBA students and for directing the School’s efforts to create the Wharton Global Leadership Institute. He also teaches an interdisciplinary graduate level course in the Non Profit/NGO Leadership Program at the School of Social Policy & Practice, and multiple Field Application Project courses at the Wharton School. In addition, Jeff designs and delivers leadership workshops and courses for executive clients through Wharton Executive Education. As an Academic Director, Jeff leads two weeklong executive courses, Creating and Leading High Performing Teams and The Leadership Edge. Jeff serves as a Strategic Advisor to the Global Partnerships Forum and on Leadership Development Committee of the Pig Iron Theatre Company.
Heather Klusaritz, PhD, MSW
hklusar2@sp2.upenn.edu
Heather Klusaritz is an instructor and health services researcher with the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and lecturer at the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. Heather is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy & Practice (MSW 2002, PhD in 2012) and has practiced clinically at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for the last decade. Her research interests focus on the intersection between health care and social welfare policy, specifically access to health care for marginalized populations and the design of health systems to eliminate disparities in health access and outcomes. Current research endeavors include: 1) training models for health care professionals to work with vulnerable populations in the era of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 2) the impact of Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) status of primary care providers on patient clinical outcomes in transitions in care, and 3) patient perceptions of PCMH status of their primary care providers and the impact on the care they receive. Ms. Klusaritz has significant teaching experience with MSW, MPH, and medical students as well as Family Medicine residents in the areas of health disparities, social determinants of health inequities, health policy, and social welfare policy. In 2009 she was awarded the The President's & Provost's Citation for Exceptional Commitment to Graduate & Professional Student Life, at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her research and teaching, Ms. Klusaritz works collaboratively with multiple community partners throughout West Philadelphia to improve the health of underserved communities. She has served as a faculty advisor for the United Community Clinics in West Philadelphia for the past decade, recently completed an assessment and planning study for a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the Parkside community, and is the co-founder of Service Link, a program where trained undergraduate and medical students connect patients to critical social welfare benefits, help navigate health system access, and medical-legal advocacy.
David Koppisch, MSW
dkoppisch@temple.edu
David Koppisch is a community organizer with more than 20 years experience that also includes policy and legislative advocacy, non-profit fund raising and direct service work with individuals experiencing mental illness and homelessness. As an organizer, David has helped start and build several grassroots community change efforts both at the neighborhood and city-wide levels, here in Philadelphia, including work with the Settlement House Organizing Project (1996-2000), the Eastern Philadelphia Organizing Project (2000-02), the Women’s Community Revitalization Project (2002-06), the Philadelphia Affordable Housing Coalition (2002-05), the Philadelphia Campaign for Housing Justice (2005-06) and currently with Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower & Rebuild (POWER) (2009-2011). Through these efforts, Mr. Koppisch has helped bring together and build the leadership capacity of hundreds of community residents, neighborhood groups and religious congregations to affect change. Mr. Koppisch’s work with these efforts helped enable them to win significant and concrete victories in areas of affordable housing policy, programming and budgets; community-police relations and city services; and jobs. As a fund developer for numerous community organizations and social service agencies, Mr. Koppisch has helped raise several million dollars from both public and private sources. In addition to part-time instruction at SP2, Mr. Koppisch has taught graduate social work courses at the Bryn Mawr School of Social Work and Social Research.
Lara Rogers Krawchuk, MSW, LCSW, MPH
Healing.concepts@yahoo.com
Lara Rogers Krawchuk is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work and the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. Her clinical social work practice experience has been largely concentrated in healthcare, including a variety of in and outpatient oncology, hospice, and cancer wellness organizations. Presently, she works in private practice specializing in caregiving, chronic and life threatening illness, grief, loss, professional compassion fatigue, and stress management. She is co-founder of Healing Concepts, a counseling and psychoeducational consulting organization. Mrs. Krawchuk is a lecturer nationally on a broad array of subjects related to loss and illness and has recently contributed two chapters to a book on Techniques for Grief Therapy edited by Robert Neimeyer, PhD.
Andrew Lamas, JD
atlamas@sas.upenn.edu
Andrew Lamas began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in 1990. His primary appointment is in the School of Arts & Sciences’ Urban Studies Program, where he focuses on the theoretical and practical dimensions, as well as the philosophical and religious bases, of social justice and economic democracy — in the context of urbanization. He teaches courses for students pursuing degrees and careers in economic development, community development finance, NGO/non-profit leadership, social work, and related fields. He is Core Teaching Faculty in Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies (GSWS) and the Alice Paul Center, he participates in the GSWS Global Gender Group, and he is Faculty Affiliate of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center. He serves on the board of directors of the Bread & Roses Community Fund (which has distributed more than $10 million to organizations in the Philadelphia area working for access to health care, economic justice, a clean, safe environment, civil and human rights, and peace). He is the website editor of the International Herbert Marcuse Society, and he is on the editorial board of the Radical Philosophy Review -- the journal of the Radical Philosophy Association. He founded and directs the Social Justice Research Academy, a month-long, residential program at the University of Pennsylvania for high school students from around the world. Read More
Kate Ledwith, DSW, LCSW
kledwith@sp2.upenn.edu
Kate Ledwith, DSW, LCSW is a graduate of both the Masters of Social Work and the Doctorate of Social Work programs at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. She completed her undergraduate work in sociology at Tulane University. Dr. Ledwith has extensive experience working at PENN Behavioral Health as the employee assistance program psychotherapist, providing psychotherapy and case management services using a brief treatment model. Additionally, she performed duties related to crisis management, quality assurance, and program development. Dr. Ledwith played a key role in integrating the Mental Health Parity Act into the current policies and service provisions at Penn Behavioral Health. She also has community mental health experience in Philadelphia. Currently Dr. Ledwith is in private practice, where she sees outpatient clients for both brief treatment and ongoing psychotherapy. She has vast teaching interests at Sp2 in the area of clinical social work practice. Dr. Ledwith is also working on professional writing projects. Her areas of interest include attachment, termination and the role of social workers in the therapeutic relationship.
Jack B. Lewis, MSW, LCSW
lewisj@mail.med.upenn.edu
Mr. Lewis' clinical area of interest is psychiatric social work with emphasis on crisis intervention and in the provision of mental health services to African Americans, especially men. For the past 15 years he has worked for the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, 6 years for the Hospital and the past 9 years for the University. For 4 years Mr. Lewis served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Recruitment for the Penn School of Social Work. Mr. Lewis is presently the Director of the Office of Diversity and Community Outreach for the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine. For the past three years, he has also served an appointment as a member of the adjunct faculty for the School of Social Policy & Practice in the Racism Sequence.
Mary Mazzola, MSW, EdD
mmazzola@sp2.upenn.edu
Mary Mazzola is the Associate Dean for Enrollment Management and Global Outreach. Dr. Mazzola received her Ed.D. in Higher Education Management at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education. She earned her MSW degree from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy & Practice. Prior to working at Penn, Dr. Mazzola practiced in the health care arena. She has extensive clinical and administrative experience that includes serving on a senior management team of a Philadelphia teaching hospital for five years. Dr. Mazzola returned to the School in 1994 as a part-time lecturer for required and elective courses in the Human Behavior Sequence of the MSW program. Most recently, she teaches classes and seminars in mental health. In 2000, Dr. Mazzola began her full-time tenure at Penn as admission and recruitment director for the MSW program. Currently, she oversees the admission and recruitment functions for all five degree programs offered at the School. Dr. Mazzola’s research and scholarly interests include internationalization of higher education, medical social work and outcomes measurement.
Carol A. McLaughlin, MD, MPH
carolmc@sp2.upenn.edu
Carol A. McLaughlin is the research director for global public health at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. Carol is an infectious disease doctor who brings a longstanding commitment to global public health issues. She has been involved in a wide variety of programs in both the U.S. and the developing world including community-based health interventions in Central America and Mexico, field research on emerging viruses with the CDC, clinical programs in Thailand and Vietnam, and public health work addressing antibiotic resistance in cholera and malaria. She most recently served as an HIV medical attending at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, through the Penn Program in Botswana.
She received MD and MPH degrees from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine and School of Public Health, respectively. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, with a B.A. in Public and International Policy.
Jason Miller, MSW
jasonm77@gmail.com
Jason Miller brings over 10 years’ experience as a Social Work leader in a variety of nonprofit and community organizations. He has taught a section of the Social Work Macro Practice class at The University of Pennsylvania since 2010. He has also provided Social Work field instruction to BSW and MSW student interns at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University and Indiana University. He received a BSW from Goshen College in 2000 and a MSW in 2006 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. Previous to grad school Jason spent six years working with children, families, and the elderly in a variety of direct and leadership positions in Indiana, California and Pennsylvania. Since 2006, Jason has had two executive leadership positions. The first position was at a youth focused non-profit called Youth Connections located in Franklin, Indiana. He was the Associate Executive Director at Youth Connections. During his time at Youth Connections, Jason helped to start a new youth mentoring program and stabilized the organization's programs, board of directors, employees and budget. Following a two year stint at Youth Connections, Jason relocated to Philadelphia. Since 2009, Jason has been employed at Bethesda Project as the Associate Director, Clinical Services. In his current role Jason provides ongoing clinical supervision, agency planning, agency evaluation and staff training to Bethesda Project’s fifteen homeless/housing/social serviceprograms.
Edward Monte, PhD
Edward Monte, PhD has been in clinical practice primarily working as a couple therapist for over thirty years. For the last thirteen years, he has been a founding partner in Centra, a multidisciplinary psychiatric and psychotherapy practice group in the area. He was also Director of the Couple and Family Program at Crozer Chester Medical Center for four years and a senior clinician and supervisor in a couple therapy clinic within the Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania for twelve years. He is a clinical member and approved supervisor in the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. He has extensive teaching experience in graduate and post graduate programs locally and nationally.
Nancy A. Morrow, MSW
nmorrow@sp2.upenn.edu
Nancy Morrow is currently a consultant and trainer in the field of aging and long term care. Her particular areas of interest include case management, mental health and aging, consumer-directed care, strengths-based approach, and ethical issues in long term care. Ms. Morrow regularly provides workshops and training seminars for agencies locally, statewide, and nationally. Other services she provides include program development, strategic planning, curriculum development, and grant writing. Ms. Morrow is also the Director of Development at the Supportive Older Women’s Network (SOWN). Some of her previous experience includes Executive Director of Pennsylvania Care Management Institute and the Director of Protective Services at the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging. Ms. Morrow was awarded the 2004 Agency Award by WOMEN'S WAY for her extensive work in support of older women and received the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004-2005. Ms. Morrow has also secured several grants for the School from the John A. Hartford Foundation to provide geriatric enrichment to social work education at the School, further develop community partnerships and support training initiatives in aging and social work. Ms. Morrow completed her undergraduate work in psychology at Bucknell University and received her MSW at the University of Pennsylvania.
Kim Nieves, PhD
Kim.Nieves@pacourts.us
Dr. Nieves received her BA in psychology from New School University, and both her MSW and PhD in social welfare from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice. She is presently Director of Research and Statistics for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania where she oversees statewide topical research projects; these include examining intersections between the courts and social welfare, such as dependency, delinquency, child custody, problem solving courts and death penalty litigation. Dr. Nieves’ work also focuses on the synthesis of administrative databases for social & governmental research and evaluation, and applied methods for evidence-based public policy.
Melissa Nissenbaum, MSW, DSW
mkahane@sp2.upenn.edu
Dr. Nissenbaum received her bachelor’s in fine art from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in 2001, a master’s of social work from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 and a Doctorate of Social Work degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011. She has extensive experience in community mental health where she served as the Clinical Supervisor and Psychotherapist for many years. In addition to providing supervision, she was responsible for providing individual, group, and couples therapy. Currently, Dr. Nissenbaum is in private practice where she provides ongoing psychotherapy to individuals utilizing various techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing. Her research interests include Holocaust survivors, with a specific focus on intergenerational transmission of trauma.
Walter Palmer, JD
founder1776@comcast.net
Walter Palmer has extensive teaching experience at Temple, Lincoln University and the University of Pennsylvania where he has taught in the Medical School and the School of Social Policy & Practice. He is a community activist with particular expertise in community and economic development and civil rights, who is frequently called upon to negotiate neighborhood conflicts and incidents of civil unrest.
Staci Perlman, PhD
speckham@sp2.upenn.edu
Staci Perlman is currently a Research Associate on the Evidence-Based Program for the Integration of Curricula (EPIC) in the Graduate School of Education. She recently completed her PhD in Social Welfare at the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also received her MSW Her research interests focus on using partnership-based, applied research to address the well-being needs of vulnerable young children in the child welfare system. Staci’s dissertation research focused on the impact and timing of social risks on early educational well-being. She has taught various courses at the School of Social Policy & Practice, Rutgers University, and Temple University – including HBSE, History and Philosophy of Social Welfare, Introduction to Research, Program Evaluation, and Prenatal and Early Child Development. Staci has worked as a preschool teacher, as well as a clinician for at-risk adolescents.
Jessica Taylor Piotrowski, PhD
Dr. Jessica Taylor Piotrowski (Ph.D, 2010, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania) is a Research Associate at the Annenberg Public Policy Center and lecturer at the School of Social Policy & Practice. Beginning January 2012, she will be joining the faculty at the University of Amsterdam as an Assistant Professor in the Youth & Media Entertainment group in the Department of Communication Science. Her research focuses on understanding the role that media plays in the lives of young children. She views the individual differences of the viewer, the context of the media use, and the media content itself as equal contributors when evaluating media effects. Her research has been presented at numerous conferences and published in communication, psychology, and education journals.
Jennifer Plumb, DSW,LSW
jcplumb@sp2.upenn.edu
Dr. Plumb received her bachelor’s of social work from Temple University in 2002, a master’s of social work from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003 and a Doctorate of Social Work degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011. She is the Social Worker in the Division of Child Development, Rehabilitation, and Metabolic Disease at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s in the Regional Autism Center. She has been working with the Regional Autism Center since 2003 where she co-facilitates social skills groups, organizes parent educational groups and provides ongoing support and resource coordination to families of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other special health care needs. Dr. Plumb serves as faculty in the Leadership Education and Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program and is a member of an interdisciplinary autism diagnostic team and an early autism screening clinic. Jennifer’s research interests include the impact of social support and parental stress on family resilience in families impacted by ASD.
Katherina M. Rosqueta, MBA
rosqueta@sp2.upenn.edu
Katherina M. Rosqueta is the founding Executive Director of The Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. Before accepting her appointment at the Center in the Spring of 2006, Kat was a consultant with McKinsey & Company, where she served clients in the areas of strategy development, capability-building, and post-merger management. While at McKinsey, she led several employee volunteer initiatives to support consultant involvement on nonprofit boards.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Kat worked in community development, nonprofit management, and venture philanthropy. She served as a founding team member of New Schools Venture Fund; founding director of Board Match Plus, a San Francisco program dedicated to strengthening nonprofit boards; and program manager of Wells Fargo’s Corporate Community Development Group. She has held numerous volunteer and civic leadership positions including board president of La Casa de las Madres (San Francisco’s oldest and largest shelter for battered women and their children); chair of the United Way’s Bay Area Week of Caring, and co-founder and executive committee member of the Women’s MBA Network.
Her work and comments have been cited in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Money Magazine, and the International Herald Tribune. She is a frequent speaker on issues of social impact management and philanthropy and has lectured at the Wharton Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, University of California Haas School of Business, and the University of San Francisco’s Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management.
Kat received her B.A. cum laude from Yale University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She and her husband Michael Idinopulos live in Philadelphia with their three children.
Roberta G. Sands, MSW, PhD
rgsands@sp2.upenn.edu
Dr. Sands is known for her contributions to clinical social work practice in mental health, postmodern feminism, and qualitative research. She was a member of the standing faculty of the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania from 1990 until her retirement in 2011 and continues to hold the title of Professor. Her teaching areas include clinical social work theory and practice, qualitative research, and women’s issues. Dr. Sands is the author of three editions of a textbook on social work practice in mental health—most recently Clinical Social Work Practice in Behavioral Mental Health: Toward Evidence-Based Practice, 3rd edition (2012, with Z. Gellis); and co-author of Interprofessional and Family Discourses: Voices, Knowledge, and Practice (2002, with M. McClelland); and the author of over 90 other publications. Her research has been in the areas of gender, culture, and religion as they relate to family functioning and mental health. She has conducted research on mothers with serious mental illness, families coping with a daughter’s religious change, spiritual transformation, and grandparents raising their grandchildren. In addition, she has engaged in evaluation research on the development of cultural competence by mental health providers.
Heather Sheaffer, DSW, LCSW
heather.sheaffer@uphs.upenn.edu
Dr. Sheaffer received her Bachelor of Social Work from Temple University, her Masters of Social Service from Bryn Mawr College and her Doctorate in Clinical Social Work from the School of Social Policy and Practice at Penn. She is currently employed as a clinical social worker and team leader in the Department of Clinical Resource Management and Social Work at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) She has more than 15 years direct practice and supervisory experience in health care. At HUP, she also serves as the non-nursing leader for Patient and Family-Centered Care and as a member of the Ethics Committee. Dr. Sheaffer’s research interests focus on the experiences of patients and families in the health care encounter. She enjoys volunteering with multiple programs providing services to the homeless.
Anastasia Shown, MSW
shown@sas.upenn.edu
Anastasia Shown is the Assistant Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s African Studies Center. At the Center she organizes outreach programs to educate the larger public about Africa and co-manages Penn’s International Development Summer Institute in Ghana. She fulfilled her B.A. at Indiana University and the University of Ghana, majoring in Women Studies and Sociology. She earned her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy & Practice. She conducted field work in Ghana through Penn School of Medicine’s Global Health Framework and in Cameroon through the Philadelphia Global Water Initiative and Penn’s Engineers Without Borders chapter. She was awarded the Global Young Advocate Award by the United Nations Association of America and a Fulbright-Hays grant to train U.S. educators in Ethiopia. Anastasia serves on the Board of Directors for the United Nations Association of Greater Philadelphia and the CA House, working with the Open Mind for Africa program.
William Silver, DSW
silverw@sp2.upenn.edu
William Silver, DSW, is focused on the development of theory for practice. He maintains a practice in family therapy, with a specialty in couples to supplement his academic interest in attachments, and the effects of the healing relationship. He teaches advanced practice as well as family intervention at Penn. He also teaches a doctoral course in global families, and camparative family theories at Drexel's program in marital and family therapy. He is on the DSW faculty at Penn, teaching the seminar on practice.
Paul Starling, DSW, MSW
pstarling1@verizon.net
Paul Starling received his Doctorate in Clinical Social Work and his Master of Social Work degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice. Dr. Starling works full time as an elementary school counselor. He has worked as a social worker in international adoption, special needs adoption, and various state funded child and adolescent mental health programs. Dr. Starling's research interests include child and family educational success, involvement, and outcomes, particularly with the poor, outdoor free play, and using nature as a therapeutic intervention.
Cassie Statuto, EdD
cbevan@sp2.upenn.edu
Dr. Bevan is a social welfare policy expert having served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1984 to 2007. She served as the Staff Director of both the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families and the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means. In 2001, Dr. Bevan moved to the House Leadership serving as Senior Policy Advisor to the Majority Whip and later to the Majority Leader. Dr. Bevan was a principal staffer on many domestic and international proposals that later became public laws including: the Inter-Ethnic Placement Act of 1996; the Adoption Tax Credit of 1996; the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997; the Chaffee Foster Care Independence Act of 1999; the Inter-country Adoption Act of 2000; the DC Family Court Act of 2001; and, the Safe and Timely Interstate Placement of Foster Children Act of 2006. As a consultant to the Pew Charitable Trust, Cassie assisted in securing passage of the “Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. ” She is currently an advisor to the “Wendy’s Wonderful Kids” program of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, and to the Center on Adoption Policy. Dr. Bevan is on the Board of Directors for the Rebecca Project for Human Rights. Cassie Statuto Bevan received her doctorate in Child Development from Columbia University in 1980. The following academic year Dr. Bevan completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Bush Program for Child Development and Social Policy at the University of Michigan. Cassie came to Washington, DC in 1982 as a Congressional Science Fellow sponsored by the Society for Research in Child Development and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Bevan is currently a consultant and has testified many times before the U.S. Congress as well as the Pennsylvania Senate. She has received numerous awards most notably from the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse 1998, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2003 and the Adoption Excellence Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2006.
Jacqueline Russo Strait, MSW, LCSW
Jacqueline.strait@gmail.com
Jackie Strait is a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist. She holds an MSW from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing her DSW at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice. Jackie works in college mental health providing individual and group psychotherapy for young adults and clinical supervision for social work students. Jackie specializes in working with victims and survivors of rape, sexual assault and chronic interpersonal trauma. Jackie also maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Philadelphia. Previously, Jackie has worked with children, adolescents, and families in many different levels of care, including intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization and residential treatment programs. Jackie’s areas of scholarly interest include relational and psychoanalytic theory, complex trauma and the dissociative disorders.
Geri Summerville, MSW
summerville@comcast.net
Geri Summerville is a Lecturer at the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches Research and Evaluation Design in the MSSP program. She is a consultant to foundations and nonprofits in the areas of strategic planning, capacity building, program development, program evaluation, and program replication. She has more than 15 years of nonprofit management experience and for more than a decade was employed at Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) and held the position of Executive Vice President overseeing all aspects of P/PV's programming. Previously, she was a senior program officer for Replication and Program Strategies, Inc. and served as a research assistant at the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, University of Pennsylvania. Her past experience also includes 12 years in health care administration and management in the private sector. Ms. Summerville holds a MSW degree, with a policy and administration focus, from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy & Practice.
Thomas Tantillo, MSW, MBA
tantill@sp2.upenn.edu
Tom Tantillo received his MSW from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and his MBA from LaSalle University. He has over 30 years of administrative and clinical experience in criminal justice, healthcare and behavioral healthcare programs in non-profit, governmental, academic and for-profit settings. He participated in the genesis of managed behavioral healthcare, and is a recognized expert in the development, operation and financing of behavioral healthcare programs. Tom is currently the Executive Director of Drug and Alcohol Services at the Penn Foundation in Sellersville, PA.
Julie Tennille, MSW, LSW
Julie.tennille@gmail.com
Julie Tennille is a PhD candidate and research fellow at Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice. She has been a lecturer in advanced clinical social work practice with the school since 2003. Julie provides brief Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) to women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) and problem drinking. She received her MSW in 1996 and has been in direct practice, services research, and administration in public mental health and HIV/AIDS services for over 20 years. Her research interests include HIV primary and secondary prevention and the intersection of research and practice in social work.
William R. Tietjen, MSW, ACSW, LSW
tietjen@sp2.upenn.edu
William R. Tietjen, MSW, LCSW is currently a senior career management professional with the industry leading global firm of Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH). He provides services in career transition, leadership consulting and workforce solutions.Bill also has extensive experience as a social work administrator in health care. He served most recently as Director of Social Work and Family Services at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and earlier at several academic medical centers across the country. A former Board Member and founding Co-Director of the Leadership Institute for the Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care (SSWLHC), Bill continues to be a frequent presenter of forward thinking practices for social work leaders at regional and national meetings. Bill earned his Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from Boston College and holds Clinical Social Work Licenses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He has been a part time faculty member at the School of Social Policy & Practice since 1997.
Symme Trachtenberg, MSW, LSW
trachtenberg@email.chop.edu
Symme W. Trachtenberg, MSW has been a part-time faculty member of SP2 since 1990. She currently teaches Foundations of Social Work Practice and Developmental Disabilities. Mrs. Trachtenberg has focused her 35 year career at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on working with and on behalf of children, youth and adults with developmental disabilites and/or chronic illness and their families. Mrs. Trachtenberg is the Director of Community Education at CHOP and is a Clinical Associate in Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Jacquelyn E. Warr-Williams, DSW, LCSW
jwarr@sp2.upenn.edu
Dr. Warr-Williams received her BA in Psychology from California State University, Long Beach, her MSW from Smith College School for Social Work, and her DSW from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. Dr. Warr-Williams also completed a post graduate fellowship at the Yale University Child Study Center where she worked with children in schools and outpatient settings. She has 16 years of clinical experience working in a variety of social work settings with adults, children, and families. She has training in EMDR, Sandplay Therapy, and holistic methods such as Reiki. Dr. Warr-Williams has worked in medical, inpatient, crisis, school, outpatient, among other settings. She has been a clinical supervisor for MSW students as well as post master’s students. Currently she conducts trainings and regularly presents at the NASW NJ annual conference on topics surrounding GLBTQ and immigrant families. Dr. Warr-Williams is a licensed clinical social worker in New Jersey who has a private practice currently providing in home clinical services to children and families dealing with trauma, abuse, school issues, mental illness, Asperger’s, foster care/adoption, and behavioral issues, contracted through the New Jersey Department of Children’s Behavioral Health Services. She also works for Lifeties an agency with group homes providing services to GLBTQ youth, and youth with major medical issues. Her primary area of interest is working with children in play therapy, GLBTQ youth, parent psychoeducation and advocacy, youth with trauma including physical and sexual abuse, and youth with major mental health diagnosis.
Khadijah White, PhD, MA
kwhite@asc.upenn.edu
Dr. Khadijah White graduated from the Annenberg School for May 2012. Previously she worked as a journalist on an Emmy-nominated team at Now on PBS and served at a White House intern on the Obama adminstration’s Broadcast Media team. White researches race, media, gender, and politics. She has conducted ethnographic media research in the United States, Australia, and South Africa. In 2007, the United Nations and the National Association of Black Journalists awarded her a reporting fellowship to Senegal, where she interviewed President Abdoulaye Wade and other national leaders. She has also worked as a community organizer, educator, and leader, tackling issues ranging from homelessness and education in Chester, PA to media and activism in the Occupy movement. In 2012, the University of Pennsylvania honored her with a Women of Color at Penn Award which recognizes a recipient’s leadership, service, and positive impact on the Penn community.
Steve Wilmot, MSW
swilmot33@gmail.com
Steve Wilmot is a 1997 graduate of the School of Social Policy & Practice and currently works in Practice Management at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where he has been employed for over ten years. A former Director at Camp JOY and the Variety Club Camp & Developmental Center, Steve has spent a great deal of his career working with children and young adults with chronic disability and illness. In addition, Steve has worked with the homeless population and is one of the co-founders of the Safe Harbor Homeless Shelter located in West Chester, PA. Steve is a member of the Board of Directors of the Maternal and Child Health Consortium of Chester County, and sits on the Alumni Council at SP2. Steve is an Adjunct Faculty in the Undergraduate Social Work Department at West Chester University where he has taught Advanced Social Policy. Steve can be found at most SP2 functions providing "ice breakers" and ideas for experiential teaching tools.
David Wohlsifer, PhD, LCSW
Davidmsw@aol.com
Dr. David Wohlsifer, PhD, LCSW, MHA, is a licensed clinical social worker and has over 12 years of experience in individual, couple, family, and group psychotherapy. He is currently in private practice in Bala Cynwyd, PA, with Bala Psychological Resources. His areas of expertise include relationship and sexual concerns, adolescents and young adults, anxiety and mood disorders, trauma, substance abuse, sleep disorders, and internet and pornography addictions. He is a member of the Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Psychiatry Residency Program. He was the Co-Director of the Center for Survivors of Sexual Abuse and Psychosexual Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Cognitive Therapy.
Caroline Wong, MSW
cwong@sp2.upenn.edu
Caroline Wong, MSW, is the Associate Director of the Master of Social Policy Program, as well as a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy & Practice. She has worked as a licensed social worker for over 20 years. Her practice experience has included work with immigrants, entrants, asylees, and refugees, both in the United States and overseas; domestic abuse counseling; family counseling; and crisis intervention. Prior to joining the University of Pennsylvania, Ms. Wong served as the Vice President and Coordinator of Counseling Services for the Nationalities Service Center, a member agency of American Council for Nationalities Services (currently Immigration and Refugee Services of America). As a senior administrative officer she provided leadership and direction to departments and programs within a community based social service agency mandated to work with immigrants, refugees, and limited/non-English speakers.
