Mary Beth Rauktis, a Research Associate Professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work, was awarded a grant by the Fulbright Specialist Program, part of the larger Fulbright Program, to travel to Assam India in August, 2022. Read more.

The Pitt School of Social Work is excited to announce a new grant-funded partnership with the Office of Gender-Based Violence at Arizona State University to expand Survivor Link through the Public Health AmeriCorps program. Associate Professor Sara Goodkind will manage the program, which will include funding for 9 field placements at local non-profits, training, and networking nationwide with other social work students dedicated to disrupting gender-based violence. Read more.

Associate Professor Mary Ohmer developed a seven-week program that asked teenagers to consider how to build community and reduce violence in their neighborhoods. Listen here.

Joint PhD in Social Work / MPH Student Amanda Cruce represented the University of Pittsburgh and lived experience at the 2022 American Bar Association Access to Justice conference in Washington, DC. She was on an interdisciplinary panel with state leaders, attorneys, teachers, birth parents, and alumni from foster care. The panel was titled "You Are Not Alone – How to Do Race Equity Work by Building Collaborations." The panel examined the life and murder of Ma'Khia Bryant as a way to walk through layers of system impact for Black children child welfare. Read more.

Congratulations to MSW alumna Rikell Ford, LSW, MA who successfully defended her Doctor of Philosophy in Community Engagement at Point Park University. Her dissertation is titled: "Navigating Systems: A Narrative Inquiry of Black Women's Lives in Foster Care and Educational Systems."

BASW student Elizabeth Shunk talks about her experience as a first generation college student and the help she received through the Pitt’s TRIO Student Support Services (SSS), a resource hosted by the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Read more.

MSW alumna Kari Semel initially joined Pitt Hillel in 2018 to fulfill a field placement requirement for her social work master’s program at the University of Pittsburgh. Today, Semel is the assistant director of Hillel JUC, a citywide organization committed to supporting and enriching the lives of more than 2,500 Jewish college students in Pittsburgh, including those at Pitt. Read more about their work.