Morrison Family College of Health
Morrison Family College of Health
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Susan S. Morrison Hall

DSW Professional Notes

Caroline Ban, current student
Caroline Ban, St. Thomas DSW student received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of Social Work at Valparaiso University.

Tiffany Breckenridge '22
Tiffany has been an assistant professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato and primarily teaches in the MSW program. Tiffany has conducted research on culturally responsive social work practice and is currently analyzing the data. She also published the 2nd article from her banded dissertation early this year titled, "Clinician Perspectives: Exploring Adverse Childhood Experiences of Patients with End-Stage Kidney Disease." Tiffany has given three presentations to Mayo Clinic, five to MSSA State Conference in 2024 and 2025, and two presentations to the Minnesota State University, Mankato Center for Rural Behavioral Health. Tiffany was also named as Minnesota State University, Mankato's Title IV-E Program Director starting July of 2025.

Andrya Soprych '20
Andrya published the following works: Hill, J. & Soprych, A. (2024). Beginning the healing journey: Re-storying violent loss through Tree of Life narrative group work. Advances in Social Work 24(2), 269-285.

Soprych, A. (2025, March). Ways of knowing: Critical thinking and worldview as a foundation for HBSE courses. Presentation at the Baccalaureate Program Directors annual conference in Las Vegas, NV. (peer reviewed).

Susan Schmidt '17
Susan published the article, "In Whose Best Interests? Comparing Children’s Treatment in Immigration Court and in Child Protection Hearings in Minnesota: Similar Issues Without the Relevant Tools or Best Interests Standard" in the Journal on Migration and Human Security. It is based on my sabbatical research observing and comparing children's court hearings.

Jeremy Vu '22
In 2023, Dr. Jeremy Vu was awarded Faculty of the Year by students at Oglala Lakota College, making him the only faculty member in OLC's 50-year history to receive the award twice, the first time being in 2020. At the end of 2024, Dr. Vu was promoted to the BSW Program Director, Chair, and Field Director in Oglala Lakota College's BSW program. Similarly, Dr. Vu successfully completed the BSW program's reaffirmation through the Council on Social Work Education and the program is reaccredited until 2030.

Dr. Vu was also was a primary writer for Oglala Lakota College's reaccreditation process for the Higher Learning Commission and successfully assisted OLC in obtaining accreditation for an additional 10 years. In 2025, Dr. Vu became the Chair of the Indigenous and Tribal research track for the Council of Social Work Education. Jeremy continues to teach in the BSW program and Master's in Leadership graduate program at Oglala Lakota College.

Jodi Whitted '23
Dr. Whitted served an appointed term as an Ohio State Representative in 2024. In this role served on committees that included Primary and Secondary Education, Transportation, and Insurance. Additionally, she introduced legislation that included the Marriage Equality Act and the Social Work Internship Grant Program. In this role, she is most proud of stewarding Paige’s Law through the legislative process. It was signed into law in January 2025.

Meg Dejong-Shier '23
Meg DeJong-Shier was recently promoted to a tenured track position at West Texas A&M University.

Margaret Miles '21
Dr. Margaret Miles earned tenure and will be promoted to Associate Professor at Vermont State University.

Dana Holcomb '21
Dr. Holcomb achieved tenure and was promoted to Full Professor at Ferris State University. Dr. Holcomb teaches across the BSW and MSW curriculum and also serves as the Practicum Education Director.

Dr. Holcomb published five articles this academic year:

“The Impact of COVID-19 on Formal Mentorship: A Qualitative Study of Social Work Faculty” in Advances in Social Work.
“The Long-term Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Work Practicum Directors: A Qualitative Study” in The Field Educator.

Dr. Holcomb co-authored three articles including:

  • “A Focus on Equity: An Exploration of Practicum Directors’ Experiences” in The Field Educator
  • “Inclusive and Culturally Responsive Formal Mentorship: A Conceptual Framework for Marginalized Faculty” in Critical Social Work
  • “Transformative Supervision: A Conceptual Framework for Relationally-based, Trauma-informed Supervision in Post Pandemic Practicum Education” in The Journal of Applied Learning in Social Work Education

Dr. Holcomb presented two workshops at the Council on Social Work Education’s 70th Annual Program Meeting. The first was entitled “The Vital Role Internship Directors Hold in Assessing ADEI Practices Within Practicum Placements” and the other was entitled “Equity Focused Internships: An Exploration of Practicum Director Strategies.”

Dr. Holcomb was awarded the Academic Scholar Award at Ferris State University in April 2025. This award recognizes a member of the academic community who has demonstrated excellence in research, inquiry and/or scholarship.

ZaDonna Slay '21
Dr. ZaDonna M. Slay has been elected as a board member for the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education (AABHE), having been sworn in during their annual conference held from March 29 to April 1, 2025, at National Harbor, Maryland. Additionally, Dr. Slay has been selected as a 2025-26 Leadership and Mentoring Institute (LMI) Mellon Fellow, sponsored by AABHE and The Mellon Foundation. This program is designed for individuals currently in higher education who seek to maximize their executive training experience. Furthermore, ZaDonna has been appointed as the interim field coordinator at Tennessee State University.

Melissa Dalhoe 24
In January 2025, Melissa Dalhoe, DSW, LICSW joined the University of Minnesota Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences as an Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of the department's Inclusive Excellence & Well-being Council, where she also continues to serve as Director of the NAVIGATE program to treat first episode psychosis.

Catherine Jean Robertson '19
Catherine Received the Collaboration Grant from the Lilly Network for Church-Related Colleges and Universities ($12,500) - Principal Investigator.

She also published work: Baker, L. Roberson, C., and Pence, J. (2025). The effectiveness of simulation for teaching disaster mental health. Journal of Social Work Education. 

Anne Adcock '17
Dr. Anne Adcock is a Professor and BSW Program Director at Campbellsville University in Campbellsville, Kentucky. She has served at CU for 14 years. Dr. Adcock's most recent presentations include:

  • October 2024 – North American Association of Christians in Social Work “Faith Integration in Higher Education: Views of Students and Faculty”
  • October 2024 – Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting – “Assessing the Validity of Remote Field Placements”
  • October 2024 – Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting - “A balancing act……Perceptions of spirituality integration across disciplines.”

Dr. Adcock has recently become a volunteer Site Visitor for the Council on Social Work Education and serves on the board of a local non-profit agency that runs sober living houses for both men and women.

At the university level, Dr. Adcock served on a committee in 2024 that redeveloped the mission and vision statements for the institution. As program director, she coordinated the social work program's enhancement of all courses to transition to the 2022 EPAS. Dr. Adcock was also instrumental in the recent development of an Associate Degree in Social Service and Certificate in Addiction Recovery. Dr. Adcock is currently working on development of other new programs and opportunities for students.

Bobbi Fields, current student
Bobbi was named a doctoral fellow for the Council on Social Work Education's Minority Fellowship Program for the 2024-2025 year. She joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Maternal Health: Community Voices Project as a co-investigator to further enhance the emotional wellbeing of perinatal minority women in Robeson County, NC. This project utilizes the community-based participatory research model with a mixed-methods research design.

Bobbi also served as the lead presenter at the 2025 Community Health and Wellness Symposium at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke to present the themes identified in Maternal Health: Community Voices Project. She also presented her culturally responsive screening model for perinatal mental health at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke’s 6th Annual Southeastern Social Work Conference held in March 2025.

Bobbi was fortunate to attend the 2025 CSWE Fellows Forum to advocate for education and trainee programs that benefit social work practitioners. Lastly, she accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the Department of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke beginning in August 2025.

Luis O. Curiel '21
Luis published two book chapters in the following:

  • Curiel, L. O. (2024). Antiracist social work education: pedagogical congruency in racial justice teaching & learning. In W. Ashley (Ed.), Merging clinical social work practice and antiracist positioning: how to be a clinically sound, social work practitioner (pp. 3-19). Peter Lang. DOI: 10.3726/b21366
  • Lipscomb, A., Ashley, W., Curiel, L. O. & Mountz, S. (2024). Conducting culturally responsive mental status examinations (CR-MSE). In W. Ashley (Ed.), Merging clinical social work practice and antiracist positioning: how to be a clinically sound, social work practitioner (pp. 131-140). Peter Lang. DOI: 10.3726/b21366

Mary Kirk '19
DSW friends and colleagues, Dr. Mary Kirk (Winona State University) and Dr. C. J Van Wright (Westfield State University), conduct collaborative survey research on social work students' social justice values, and are accepted to present at the Council of Social Work Education's Annual Conference in October 2025.

Chipo Nwakwubei '25
Chipo Nwakwubei is the Founder/CEO of Sithabile Women Breaking Barriers in Ontario working with women who have experienced abuse within partner relationships. Chipo’s practice seeks to empower, strengthen, and educate individuals to achieve their internal and external wellness by providing a holistic counseling approach. She is mindful of how difficult experiences can impact one’s social, emotional, spiritual or developmental functioning, and thus therapy is client centered and goal-oriented.

Chipo incorporates different models of interventions such as narrative, Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Trauma Focused CBT, Solution Focused Therapy, Validation Therapy, Advocacy and Client-Centered Therapy. Chipo is an active member of her community, and volunteers to support children and women and is driven to make a difference in her surroundings.

Chipo was elected a board member for Dr. Roz Healing Place in November 2024.

Norma Love-Schropshire '20
Dr. Norma has multiple publications in the last few years:

Britt Olean, current student
Britt presented "Understanding and Responding to Youth Experiences" based on dissertation research at the Minnesota Association of Children's Mental Health Conference. She also is the social work member on the State Advisory Council on Mental Health and Subcommittee on Children's Mental Health.

Rachel Babbitt, current student
Rachel presented at the Minnesota Social Service Association annual conference on her dissertation topic, Building Resilience: Understanding Community Trauma in a Violent World. The presentation was done on-line with over 450 participants!

Matthew Metcalf '25
Matthew created and developed a family therapy model called Family Systems Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (FS-DBT). He completed a systematic review of quantitative studies focused on family therapy and DBT, and published his findings in The Family Journal. Additionally, he was hired to teach Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Family Therapy at Loma Linda University.



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