Sep. 1, 2022
Taking down stigma, one step at a time
MU researcher decreases stigma among probation and parole officers through short online trainings.
Aug. 31, 2022
Dani Pevehouse-Pfeiffer: New faculty Q&A
Assistant Clinical Professor, School of Social Work What classes are you teaching this semester? 7220 Advanced Social Work Practice in Integrated Healthcare What do you love about teaching? What are you most looking forward to this semester? This will be my first semester teaching master’s-level students and I’m excited about growing and fostering skill development in our future social workers. Part of why I enjoyed the Master of Social Work program so much was due in large part to the mentorship I received from my own professors and instructors. I’m looking forward to that relationship-building this semester most. …
Aug. 31, 2022
Tiffany Bowman: New faculty Q&A
Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Social Work What classes are you teaching this semester? I will be teaching one section of Social Work 4970 and one section of Social Work 4971. In addition to the courses, I will be working with students planning for their social work practicum placements next semester. I will also be developing new field placement opportunities for social work students. What do you love about teaching? What are you most looking forward to this semester? I love teaching because students are full of energy, new ideas and passion for the field of social work. I am…
Aug. 30, 2022
Dan Hanneken: New faculty Q&A
Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Social Work What classes are you teaching this semester? I am teaching Criminal Justice & Delinquency, Corrections, and Social Treatment this semester. What do you love about teaching? Preparing future professionals to be effective in their work. What are you most looking forward to this semester? Meeting first-year students and encouraging them and the other students to make the best of their experience at MU. Tell us a little about yourself! I was an adjunct for 10 years prior to becoming faculty. I love to travel with my wife, and we sometimes enjoy bringing our…
Aug. 30, 2022
Andy Frey: New faculty Q&A
Professor, School of Social Work Through MizzouForward, you were hired as a “research leader with a passion for collaboration and the grit to address our world’s more pressing research challenges.” How will those qualities affect your work at Mizzou? I will use my first year in the MizzouForward program to get my research that is underway in Louisville, Kentucky, finished and make progress on some lines of research that I am very optimistic about, given my new colleagues at Mizzou. This will also give me time to understand the social work curriculum and assess how I can have the…
Aug. 25, 2022
Emphasizing empathy: strengthening the bond between incarcerated mothers and their children
Ashley Givens first got into social work because she wanted to help underserved youth. During her years of study and research, her focus turned to working with mental health and the adult criminal legal system. Now an assistant professor of social work at Mizzou, Givens’ interests have come full circle: She recently received a Richard Wallace Faculty Incentive Grant to study using structured journaling to strengthen the bond between incarcerated mothers and their children. “It’s a way for these women to reconnect with their kids and maintain the mother-child bond in a directed, meaningful way,” Givens says. Givens’…
Aug. 25, 2022
Surprising snapshot of trafficking survivors
Contrary to common belief, the portrait of a human-trafficking survivor in Missouri is not that of a young, white teenager who is abducted and forced into the sex trade. Instead, Kathleen Preble’s survey of the state’s social service providers found that survivors usually are Black or brown (46%) and Asian (10%). The assistant professor of social work also found that 18- to 35-year-olds make up the bulk of the survivors (56%). The vast majority were not immigrants but rather poor or working-class U.S. citizens trafficked for sex (83%), labor (5%) or both (13%). In considering survivors’ prospects for…
Aug. 25, 2022
Stepping In2Action for former inmates
Dan Hanneken photo by Rob Hill Dan Hanneken knows all too well that releasing a person from prison doesn’t free him from the problems, habits and environment that led to incarceration. Before learning that lesson, the assistant teaching professor in the School of Social Work served three sentences as a violent offender. Today, Hanneken, BSW ’06, MSW ’08, not only turns life experiences into teachable moments for social work students but also helps newly released inmates get back on their feet. In2Action, the residential transition program he founded and directs, provides drug-free housing for up to 50 former offenders…
Aug. 25, 2022
Matching needs and resources
Jane Williams photo by Sam O’Keefe In every community, people need help. Fortunately, a corresponding group typically exists with the desire and resources to provide that assistance. But what Jane Williams, BSW ’76, MSW ’77, found surprising was how out of sync the two sides of this equation often are. “There is a constant need for relational support and coordination,” she says. “We try to match the needs of the community with the times, talents and resources in the most effective way.” Communities’ needs change as the years go by. In 2005, Williams left her 20-year career as a…
Aug. 25, 2022
Social work pioneer
Col. Stan Remer The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the largest employer of master’s-level social workers in the United States — and Col. Stan Remer, MSW ’68, is a big reason why. Remer graduated from the MU School of Social Work during the height of the Vietnam War. As a medical social worker at a VA medical center in the 1970s, he saw many soldiers coming back with PTSD. “We were learning that we needed to treat mental health more forward into the battlefield,” he says. “It’s a lot better if they can deal with combat stress early on.”…