News from the College

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.

01/31/2008 - The College of Social Work is pleased to announce that it will be offering a Distance Education M.S.S.W. program for students who are unable to come to campus for classes due to their physical location. This program will be available to Advanced Standing students beginning Summer 2008, and to other M.S.S.W. students beginning Fall 2008. For more information on the Distance Education Program, click here.

01/15/2008 - Effective February 1, 2008, Dr. Cynthia Rocha will assume the duties of Acting Associate Dean for the Knoxville campus. Dr. Rocha will be Acting Associate Dean until a search can be conducted to replace the departing Dr. Jerry Faria.

10/01/2007 - Congratulations to Dr. Mary Rogge who is co-principal investigator on an $81,609 National Science Foundation grant funded for 2007 – 2009: Enhancing Diversity via Targeted Education and Outreach through the East Tennessee Geosciences Program. (G. S. Baker, principal investigator. $81,609. Co-PIs: L.D. McKay, C.I. Mora, & M.E. Rogge.) This proposal funds the initial stages of an outreach and activity program, starting with K-12 schools in Knox and Hamilton Counties and targets students of color and low-income to engage them in learning about geophysical sciences and career options.

09/20/2007 - Courtney Cronley, a Ph.D. student in the College of Social Work has had her doctoral research proposal selected by HUD for funding in the amount of $15,000. Her proposed project is entitled, Examining How Organizational Social Context Influences Technology Diffusion Among Homeless Service Providers.

08/01/2007 - The College is pleased to announce several faculty appointments. Joining us this year are: Scott Burcham (Field Coordinator, Memphis), Dr. Lyle Cooper (full-time tenure track, Nashville), Dr. Leonora Foels (full time lecturer, Nashville), Sandra Gonzalez (Field Coordinator, Nashville), and Phyllis Thompson (full time lecturer, Nashville).

08/01/2007 - SREB Doctoral Scholars Program: The Southern Regional Education Board’s (SREB) Doctoral Scholars Program was developed with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts and The Ford Foundation. It is part of a nationwide initiative, the Compact for Faculty Diversity, to produce more minority Ph.D.’s and to encourage them to seek faculty positions. SREB states share resources, work to expand their minority applicant pool, support qualified candidates with financial assistance for up to five years of graduate study, and assist graduates and higher education institutions in identifying employment opportunities. For more information please contact: doctoral.scholars@sreb.org

05/22/2007 - College Ranks 7th for Scholarly Productivity in Social Service Journals: The academic affiliations of the authors of all articles published between 1999 and 2003 in six major social work journals were tabulated to produce a ranking of the colleges and universities whose faculty made the most substantive contributions to the social work literature. In that study, the University of Tennessee College of Social Work attained the seventh highest ranking of all universities considered.

An analysis of the publication rate of authors from academic institutions in six social work journals has been conducted every five years since 1970. The most recent study (1999–2003) has now been published (Ligon, Jackson & Thyer, 2007). In the study entitled Academic Affiliations of Social Work Journal Article Authors from 1999–2003: A Productivity Analysis Spanning 25 Years of Social Work Scholarship, published in the Journal of Social Service Research, 33(3), 13–20, nearly 1,000 articles were included, representing 310 academic institutions. The University of Tennessee College of Social Work ranked seventh. This was a notable increase from the previous study period when the college was ranked at the 25th level.

Karen Sowers, dean of the college, expressed her appreciation for the continued excellent scholarship of the faculty. She said, "It is only because of hard work, persistent effort, and deep commitment to excellence on the part of many individual scholars within our institution that this level of productivity and academic recognition has been reached."

Article copies are available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Or order online at: http://www.haworthpress.com [Issue 3 (4-2007) 2006].

04/13/2007 - Kimberly McClure Cassie, a doctoral student in the College of Social Work, has received a two-year, $50,000 John A. Hartford Foundation dissertation research grant to study the effects of organizational culture and climate on client outcomes in nursing homes.

04/03/2007 - During the National Association of Social Workers-Tennessee Chapter's "Social Work Legislative Conference" activities at the Tennessee State Capitol on April 2-3, two students in the College of Social Work were honored with statewide awards. The NASW-TN announced that Veliska Perumal (M.S.S.W. student on the Knoxville campus) was selected as the 2007 M.S.S.W. Student of the Year and Heather Marshall was selected as the 2007 B.S.S.W. Student of the Year.

03/05/2007 - Dr. Sherry Cummings has been appointed as the Associate Dean for the Nashville campus. Dr. Cummings has been Acting Associate Dean since January 2006.

03/05/2007 - Dr. Matthew Theriot has been invited by the Provost to serve as a Provost's Junior Faculty Fellow.

03/05/2007 - Dr. Stan Bowie has been named a recipient of the first annual University of Tennessee African American Image Award, and recently graduated from the University of Tennessee Leadership Institute, an intensive week-long leadership training experience for 50 statewide faculty and staff from the University of Tennessee system and Board of Regents system.

03/01/2007 - Dr. Sarah Craun has been accepted to the one-week Summer Research Institute on the Cornell University campus, sponsored by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect. The Institute provides an intensive experience in the secondary analysis of child abuse and neglect data. This workshop is multidisciplinary and highly competitive, with only 12 individuals selected each year.

02/28/2007 - Sandra Gonzalez has been named the interim Field Coordinator for the Nashville campus effective March 1, 2007.

02/26/2007 - Dr. Cindy Davis has been accepted into the Fulbright Scholars Program as a Fulbright Senior Specialist. The Fulbright Senior Specialists Program is designed to provide short-term academic opportunities (two to six weeks) for U.S. faculty and professionals.

02/09/2007 - The College of Social Work M.S.S.W. program will move to a new curriculum beginning in the Fall of 2007. See http://www.csw.utk.edu/mssw/ for more details.

01/02/2007 - It's with great sadness that we report that former Associate Dean and Associate Professor Dr. Hugh Vaughn passed away in Memphis on Friday, December 29, 2006 after a lengthy illness. Dr. Vaughn retired from the University in 2004 after more than 40 years of service to the College of Social Work. A funeral was held on Sunday, December 31, 2006 in Starkville, Mississippi. Dr. Vaughn's obituary can be found on the web site of the Starville Daily News.

 

Archive of News Items
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Faculty Personal Web Pages
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