Social Work Personal Statement

Refereed and Invited Academic and Professional Presentations/Trainings

I strive to advance the Department of Social Work’s aim of “promot[ing] actions towards social justice” by disseminating my work to diverse audiences regionally, nationally and internationally. I move between the worlds of social science and policy and practice with ease. As a recognized expert among leading scholars and practitioners in child welfare, I have been invited to present at several child welfare venues, including delivering keynote addresses at national conferences. For example, as mentioned above, I was invited to deliver the annual Child Welfare Lectureship at the University of Texas at Austin at an assembly of 200 child welfare practitioners and advocates

During my first year at CSU Stanislaus, I presented different facets of my work at a national conference, the 111th American Sociological Association in Seattle, Washington (August 2016) and an international conference, the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) in Montréal, Canada (August 2017). I also submitted three abstracts to refereed regional and national conferences. One abstract was submitted (January 2017) to a statewide Title IV-E Child Welfare conference that was rejected and two abstracts were submitted (April 2017) to the premier national social work research conference (Society for Social Work Research) and are awaiting decision

Frist, I submitted an application for and was awarded a Mini-Grant in the amount of $1,500 from the College of Education, Kinesiology, and Social Work. The support from my college made it permissible for focus group data collected as part of the YAMS study, discussed above, to be professionally transcribed and allowed me to purchase a qualitative data analysis software package to analyze YAMS transcribed focus group data. I also participated in a faculty learning community, Writing a Journal Article in 12 Weeks, sponsored by the Faculty Development Center. Finally, I sought funds from the College of Education, Kinesiology, and Social Work to hire a graduate student/research assistant who expressed interest in working with me on the YAMS project. Although, I was unable to secure funding to pay for the students to support my research this summer, the student initially joined the YAMS team but because of familial and work commitments decided she was unable to