Note: Faculty member's names are linked to their profile pages, where you can view contact information, e-mail address, research area of interest, courses taught, and more.
05/03/2013 - The online Master of Science in Social Work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is one of the nation's top accredited online programs when it comes to value and affordability, according to newly released rankings from the GetEducated consumer organization. Read more here.
04/16/2013 - First Lady Crissy Haslam received the University of Tennessee, Knoxville College of Social Work’s Senator Douglas Henry Award for Service to Children and Families at Risk today at the Nashville Vanderbilt Marriott. As part of the award presentation, the “teach, touch, play” video Mrs. Haslam made for LeBonheur was aired. The video may be viewed here.
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04/12/2013 - Dr. Sherry Cummings was featured today in "Tennessee Today" as part of the University's Big Orange, Big Ideas campaign. Dr. Cummings idea is how to help first-generation students be more successful at UT: Let first-generation faculty and staff members mentor them. Cummings, associate dean and chair of the Gerontology Certificate Program in the College of Social Work, said the idea grew out of her involvement with Higher Education Resource Services. Read the complete story here. |
04/09/2013 - At the annual Chancellor's Award Banquet last night, Dr. David Patterson was awarded the Excellence in Academic Outreach award. |
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Dr. Patterson has spent much of the past eight years studying and trying to ease the problem of homelessness in our community. His work has helped improve conditions for people who are homeless and agencies that help them. Patterson, a social work professor, has been at UT since 1993. He teaches primarily in the Master of Science in Social Work program. Since 2004, Patterson has directed KnoxHMIS, a web-based data system administered by UT’s Social Work Office of Research and Public Service. It logs information about the homeless and their needs. The project has required Patterson to work closely with a long list of agencies, including the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the United Way, Knox County, the City of Knoxville, the East Tennessee Foundation, and the Knoxville Homeless Coalition. Last year, Patterson and KnoxHMIS released major reports giving community leaders ideas about how to provide more efficient and cost-effective services for homeless people. Patterson and KnoxHMIS were honored as an “Exemplary Project” in the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award competition. Contest officials praised Patterson’s work as “a wonderful example of the spirit of the higher education engagement movement and an outstanding reflection of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.” |
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02/08/2013 - Congratulations to College Ph.D. student, Ayat Nashwan, who was featured in an online article on Huffington Post. The article may be view here. |
01/30/2013 - Congratulations to Dr. John Wodarski, whose program, "Teams–Games–Tournaments (TGT) Alcohol Prevention", has been identified for inclusion in CrimeSolutions.gov. |
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Crime Solutions is an effort undertaken by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs (OJP) to identify effective, quality programs and practices in the fields of criminal justice, juvenile justice, and crime victimization to serve as evidence-based models for the field. Via a contract with Development Services Group, Inc., OJP recruited expert reviewers to assess the evaluation literature on TGT and TGT was accepted into CrimeSolutions.gov (accessed at www.crimesolutions.gov). This evidence-based repository serves as a valuable clearinghouse of information about what works and what is promising in justice programs and practices. |
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01/28/2013 - Congratulations to Dr. Mary Rogge, who was one of four social workers interviewed for the NASW News' first ever feature story on environmental justice. The article in the January 2013 NASW News (58:1, p. 7-11) is entitled, "Justice in the Face of Environmental Disasters: Social Workers Provide Recovery Efforts, Services". |
01/27/2013 -Congratulations to Dr. Karen Sowers, Dean of the College of Social Work, who has been elected as a Distinguished Scholar Fellow in the National Academies of Practice. Distinguished practitioners, scholars and policy fellows are elected by their peers from ten different health professions including dentistry, medicine, nursing, optometry, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, podiatric medicine, psychology, social work and veterinary medicine. The induction ceremony will be held April 6, 2013. |
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12/17/2012 -Congratulations to Dr. Sam Choi, whose recent study "Substance Abuse Treatment Completion in Child Welfare: Does substance abuse treatment completion matter in the decision to reunify families?" has been featured at the National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center in Berkeley. |
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The Center's mission is to enhance the quality of social and health services delivered to children who are abandoned or at risk of abandonment due to the presence of drugs and/or HIV in the family. The center is a service of the Children's Bureau and is located at UC Berkeley. |
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11/13/2012 -Congratulations to Dr. Sungku Lee, who has been accepted accepted for participation in the Early Career Reviewer (ECR) program at the Center for Scientific Review (CSR), National Institute of Health. As Scientific Reviewer Officers (SRO) assemble study sections, they can go to the ECR list to find reviewers with expertise in areas relevant to the applications they review. |
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11/13/2012 -Congratulations to Dr. Kim Cassie who has been selected to participate in the methodological training mentoring program being offered through New Connections' work with the Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research at the Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. |
10/19/2012 - Dr. Charles Glisson, who established the Children's Mental Health Services Research Center in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Social Work, has been inducted into the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. He is one of 17 fellows nationwide selected to be part of the 2012 cohort. |
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The academy is a society of distinguished scholars and practitioners dedicated to advancing social good and achieving excellence in the field of social work and social welfare through their work.
"We are proud of Dr. Glisson's work and the wide-ranging impact it has on improving the lives of children and their families," said Karen Sowers, dean of the College of Social Work. "The focus of our college has always been to better the lives of others, and Dr. Glisson's work embodies that mission."
Glisson, a Chancellor's Professor and University Distinguished Professor, founded the Children's Mental Health Services Research Center in 1988 and currently serves as its director. The center has conducted studies throughout the United States focused on improving services to youngsters and families. These studies have addressed abuse, neglect, delinquency, substance abuse, mental health problems and related issues.
The center's research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the W.T. Grant Foundation and other public and private funders.
Glisson's research focuses on how to remove bureaucratic barriers to treating children effectively. He has been principal investigator on multiple major research projects concerned with children's services funded by the National Institutes of Health. He also has written numerous articles in major social work, mental health and organizational research journals, and has made presentations throughout the country on the organizational context of social and mental health services.
To learn more about the Children's Mental Health Services Research Center, visit http://cmhsrc.utk.edu.
For more information about the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, visit http://www.aaswsw.org.
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09/20/2012 - Dr. Sam MacMaster was featured on the front page of the The Chronicle - the Duke University student newspaper - today. The article was regarding a workshop he presented at the Addications Summit at Duke University. |
09/12/2012 - Congratulations to second-year Ph.D. student Nate Williams, who has just received the prestigious and competitive National Institute for Mental Health F31 Research Fellowship. William's project, "Understanding the Impact of Organizational Implementation Strategies on Evidence-based Treatment Use," is a three year award. |
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07/10/2012 - Dr. Elizabeth Strand was recently recognized at a college-wide faculty meeting of the College of Veterinary Medicine with the Charles and Julie K. Wharton Professorship Award, for all her contributions in teaching, service and outreach. This is given to one or two faculty members in the College of Veterinary Medicine annually and provides a small stipend for one year. |
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Grants were awarded in the amount of $5,000. These monies include a gift to the recipient’s department in the amount of $1,500.00 and an additional $3,500.00 to be allocated at the recipient’s discretion as a salary stipend, GA stipend, materials reimbursement or a combination of each.
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06/15/2012 - The Fulbright Specialist Program promotes linkages between U.S. academics and professionals and their counterparts at host institutions in over 100 countries worldwide. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, projects focus on strengthening development needs of the host institutions. |
Dr. Cindy Davis has been named a Senior Fulbright Specialist. She will spend the period between June 25 and July 24th at two institutions in the Malaysian region of Borneo. "I am very excited about this opportunity to exchange ideas with faculty and students across Borneo," states Dr. Davis. Her agenda includes leading open lectures and workshops for faculty, students, and community partners about women's health, refugee issues, and other social work/technology topics.
06/14/2012 - Dr. Sherry Cummings has been appointed as a member of the CSWE Council on Leadership Development for a 3-year term effective July 1, 2012-June 30, 2015. The work of the Council on Leadership Development has a critically important role in developing the strategies that will ensure an adequate number of leaders for the profession who represent the ethnic and programmatic diversity of social work education. |
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Dr. Patterson will receive a special plaque at the National Outreach Scholarship Conference in September and will be recognized during the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities' annual meeting in Denver. In citing Dr. Patterson’s work the reviewers noted, “Your project, Knoxville Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), is a wonderful example of the spirit of the higher education engagement movement and an outstanding reflection of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.”
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05/01/2012 - Graduate student Danielle Nicole was accepted into the highly competitive SAMSHA summer internship program. Ms. Nicole is graduating next week from the EBIP concentration of the M.S.S.W. program in Knoxville
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04/24/2012 - The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has awarded a research grant to Dr. Kimberly Cassie, assistant professor at the University of Tennessee College Of Social Work. Dr. Cassie is among a select group of Junior Investigators to receive a two-year grant from the RWJF New Connections program. |
The funding will allow Dr. Cassie to develop a definition of effective pipeline programs for certified nursing assistants, common program components and an assessment of program outcomes. New Connections is a national program designed to introduce new scholars to RWJF and expand the diversity of perspectives that inform the foundation’s programming.
"We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Cassie to a program that reflects the Foundation's commitment to increasing the diversity in our grant making and in the broader fields of health research," said Debra Pérez, Ph.D., M.P.A., M.A., interim assistant vice president for Research and Evaluation at RWJF. "More than a grant opportunity, New Connections serves as a lifelong professional network for diverse researchers and evaluators."
04/11/2012 - A group of University of Tennessee College of Social Work MSSW students were chosen to receive the prize for best policy poster (link to PDF of poster) at the 2012 Social Work Day on the Hill. Courtney Johnson, Roni Levy, Kristan Thompson, and Townley White won the Day’s policy poster competition’s top honor for their poster and presentation, “A Solution in Search of a Problem: Tennessee Voter ID Bill.” Kate Chaffin was the group's faculty advisor.
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The competition is part of the Tennessee Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers’ annual Social Work Day on the Hill. “A highlight” of the day, the competition invites each attending school “to bring one policy poster to display in the Legislative Plaza and to select one student to present the policy poster.” The presentations are judged by “a panel of respected Tennessee social workers and policy experts,” and winners are awarded a plaque to display at their school.
The UT students’ poster and presentation was on the Tennessee Voter ID Bill, legislation that would require state-issued photographic identification of voters before they are able to vote. The proposed new law has been criticized, as the winning presentation’s title indicates, of “a solution in search of a problem,” due to the relatively low frequency of voting fraud. The students noted that the new legislation would disproportionately affect women, older adults, minorities, college students, and low income Tennesseans.
Archive of News Items
Items previously posted on this page can be found on our News Archive
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Faculty Personal Web Pages
Several of the faculty at the College of Social Work have personal
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