Assistant professor Will Hall and associate professor Paul Lanier co-edited a 4th edition of the book, “Social Policy for Children and Families: A Risk and Resilience Perspective,” which is being released in August. The book, previously led by editors Jeff Jenson and School professor emeritus Mark Fraser, is used as a textbook in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in social work, human development, family studies, education, psychology, and public policy. The new edition includes chapters from Hall and Lanier, and from other faculty, including Amy Wilson, Mark Fraser, and the late Matthew Howard. Ph.D. students Hayden Dawes, Alexandria Forte, Jonathan Phillips, Melissa Villodas, Anna Parisi, and Ehren Dohler also contributed to the publication.

Betsy Bledsoe, associate professor, and Kathryn Collins, associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, were recently awarded a $175,000 subcontract as part of a larger project with the International Rescue Committee in Witchita, Kan. The award will enable the faculty members to expand the intervention, Trauma Adapted Family Connections, which supports refugee, asylum and other forcibly displaced families. Bledsoe and Collins also recently provided a two-day training on the intervention at the International Rescue Committee.

Joy Stewart, research assistant professor, recently co-authored the article, “Academic trajectories of children in formal and informal kinship care,” which was published in the journal, Society for Research in Child Development.

Associate professor Paul Lanier co-authored, “Exploring clusters of risk and association with child maltreatment in North Carolina counties,” which has been accepted for publication in the North Carolina Medical Journal.

Gerard Chung, Ph.D. '21, associate professor Paul Lanier, and professor Din Chen co-authored, “What predicts mothers’ use of spanking in the first six years of early childhood? A latent growth curve analysis,” which was published in the journal, Child & Family Social Work.

Ph.D. student Sarah Godoy was recently a guest speaker on the podcast Imperfect. Godoy, a Royster Fellow, discussed her research and work around human trafficking. Her research specifically focuses on youth and young adults impacted by commercial sexual exploitation in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems and their intersection with healthcare and social services as well as technology.

Ph.D. student Claire McNellan was awarded a one-year $20,000 grant from the Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy, Research and Training at Washington University for the study, “Assessing the utility of a risk-stratification model to increase equitable service connection.” Professor Emily Putnam-Hornstein is co-principal investigator on the project. The proposal was one of three projects to receive a pilot grant.

Rayhaan Adams, MSW ’13, was recently named director of Population Health Clinical Services for UNC Faculty Physicians within UNC Family Medicine. Previously, he served as case manager and as senior lead for Population Health Clinical Services. His new role will include guiding development of related services in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics.
 
Mia Ives-Rublee, MSW '09, director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., recently joined other leaders to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris, to discuss issues and policies related to disabilities, race and the LGBTQ community.

Susan McCann, MSW '91, was named chief operating officer for Samaritan, a nonprofit healthcare provider offering hospice, grief support and palliative care in Evesham, N.J. McCann has been with the agency for nearly 20 years and previously held positions with the Central North Carolina Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Philadelphia Corporation for Aging and the AIDS Coalition of Southern New Jersey.
 
Ryan Estes, MSW ’09, was recently elected treasurer of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Social Workers. Estes is the treatment operations director of Coastal Horizons Center, Inc. in Wilmington, N.C.
 
Benjamin Rosado, MSW/MPH ’18, is a senior training manager at the Boston Public Health Commission in Boston, Mass.
 
Scott Janssen, MSW ’93, was quoted in the CNN article, “They lost their loved ones to Covid. Then they heard from them again.”

Louise Moore Bryan, MSW '62, died on July 20. She spent much of her career in Raleigh, working as a marriage counselor and volunteering as a Guardian Ad Litem, among other roles in community service.