The Catalyst
Faculty Updates
Faculty Notes
Sandra Chesborough
I began my new position as MSW Field Supervisor in January of 2009. Receiving a grant for the OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) support group I am involved in will enable us to work with teachers to educate them about children and OCD. We will be working with rural schools in particular, as well as one where students have contacted the website for the support group, sharing that they are living with OCD. The support group website is: ocdsupportgroupcmn@gmail.com
I have written a proposal about how to support and maintain OCD support groups to present at the national Obsessive Compulsive Foundation, which will be in Minneapolis in August 2009. I have also published an article entitled "Do Social Workers Learn Differently?" in the March 2009 edition of The Journal of Psychological Type.
Jan Kircher
I am getting ready to begin to write a proposal to do research with parents of gay children.
I am preparing for a presentation in April in Des Moines, Iowa, on my dissertation of gender roles in television.
Darla Korol
I have begun my second semester as the Student Social Work Association Advisor and am pleased with the progress the association has made this academic year. Attendance at meetings tops at 22-23 students. Unfortunately, the field trip planned to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota over Spring Break was cancelled due to dangerous weather conditions and a drop in students’ financial ability to attend. I want to commend our students who are responsibly assisting their families financially. Students have reported parental loss of employment and many of them worked over Spring Break to financially assist their families. The Social Work Association officers met with Mr. Lyle Rustad of the Diversity Organization Foundation. He will be assisting them with outreach to the Crow Creek Indian Reservation in South Dakota. I am excited that approximately 6 members of the Student Social Work Association will be participating in a service opportunity to Tanzania this summer. (Please see Tanzania Study Abroad under Student News.)
Sandy Robin
Sandy Robin, along with co-authors Barbara Lehmann, Augsburg College, Nancy Rodenborg, Augsburg College and Randy Herman, University of St. Thomas/College of St. Catherine, will have their article, "Cambiamos Juntos (Changing Together): Student Voices on Transformation through a Social Work Semester in Latin America" published in Educating for Social Justice: Transformative Experiential Learning, edited by J. Birkenmaier, A. Cruce, J. Curley, J. Burkemper & E. Stretch., Lyceum Press (2009). Sandy Robin will be starting a three year phased retirement in the 2009-2010 academic year
Cath Stilwell
I am currently working on an article on women in leadership at the higher education level. As part of the MSW faculty, I have been working on revising syllabuses to meet the new requirements for the courses I will be teaching. Mary Pfohl and I are in the early research stages of gathering articles to write an article on ethics in social work practice. And, as a field seminar instructor, I have been busy going on site visits, which are going well. I am learning so much about the community and the agencies.
Elizabeth Talbot
I am actively pursuing my research agenda on human trafficking working internationally in May in Moldova with women who have been rescued from trafficking. I also published a paper that was presented at an international conference on human trafficking.
Rodgers, M., & Talbot, E. (2008). Human Trafficking Prevention: Networking, Training, and Learning.
An International Collaboration and Lessons Learned. 2006 Biennial European
Interuniversity Consortium for International Social Development (IUCISD), Warsaw, Poland.
June 28-July 2, 2006. Referee Publications Conference Proceedings.
Gary Whitford
I spent the fall semester adjusting to being department chair and BSW program director. I had numerous roles and tasks to learn. One of my duties during spring semester will be to attend a conference in Phoenix and gain greater knowledge about my jobs. During March, I and other faculty are accompanying students to the Minnesota Social Service Association conference in Bloomington, and to the Social Work Day at the Capitol. This July, Lake Dziengel and I, and 2 faculty from the University of Minnesota are presenting a workshop at the 34th Annual National Institute on Social Work and Human Services in Rural Areas in Duluth. My summer will be spent on the following tasks: re-designing the department’s website, setting the groundwork for our next accreditation, and working on program assessment efforts.
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