NASW News


Foundation to award $150,000 to selected recipients


Scholarship, Fellowship and Chapter Research Grant Programs

The NASW Foundation has chosen the 2015-16 recipients of its scholarship, fellowship and chapter research grant programs, and will award more than $150,000 to the recipients.

Social work and NASW chapter candidates were selected for:

  • The Jane Baerwald Aron Doctoral Fellowship Program
  • The Eileen Blackey Doctoral Fellowship
  • Social Work HEALS Doctoral Fellowships
  • The Consuelo W. Gosnell Memorial MSW Scholarships
  • The Verne LaMarr Lyons Memorial MSW Scholarships
  • The Ruth Fizdale Chapter Research Grant Program.

Stacia West, a social work student at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare, received the NASW Foundation’s Eileen Blackey Doctoral Fellowship in Welfare Policy (one award of $10,000).

The fellowship provides partial support to social work doctoral candidates who are engaged in dissertation research in welfare policy and practice.

West was selected based on her dissertation, titled “A Paycheck Away from Homelessness: The Relationship between Financial Fragility and Housing Instability in Households Headed by Single Mothers.”

With a grant from the New York Community Trust Robert and Ellen Popper Scholarship Fund, the NASW Foundation launched Social Work HEALS, a collaborative endeavor of the NASW Foundation and the Council on Social Work Education.

The objective of the grant is to strengthen the delivery of health care services in the United States by advancing the education and training of health care social workers. Five doctoral fellowships will be awarded each year of the anticipated five-year program.

The Foundation’s existing Jane Baerwald Aron Doctoral Fellowship, which provides support to social work doctoral candidates who are engaged in dissertation research in health care policy and practice, has been supplemented and incorporated into the Social Work HEALS program and will be one of the five doctoral fellowships awarded.

The Aron Fellowship (one award of $15,625) recipient is Donald Gerke, Washington University in St. Louis, George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

The HEALS program allows increased funding for fellowship and scholarship recipients and support for leadership and professional development activities.

The Social Work HEALS Doctoral Fellows (four awards of $15,625 each) are: Sara Green, University of Washington School of Social Work; Roxanne Kennedy, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice; Susanne Klawetter, University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work; and Deirdre Shires, Wayne State University School of Social Work.

The Social Work HEALS grant will also provide enhanced funding for the Foundation’s existing Verne LaMarr Lyons Scholarships.

The Lyons Scholarships (four awards of $5,500 each) are awarded to MSW candidates demonstrating an interest in or experience with health/mental health practice, and a commitment to working in African-American communities.

The Lyons Scholarship recipients are: Ariana Allensworth, University of California, Berkeley, School of Social Welfare; David Allan Hughley, Long Island University, Brooklyn, Department of Social Work; Alletia D. Smith, University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work; and Katherane Worthington, University of Maryland School of Social Work.

The Consuelo W. Gosnell Memorial Scholarships (10 awards of $4,000 each) are awarded to MSW candidates who have demonstrated a commitment to working with, or who have a special affinity with, American Indian/Alaska Native and Hispanic/Latino populations.

The recipients are: Xochilt Alamillo, Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver, Emma Elliot, University of Washington School of Social Work; James “McKay” Glasgow, University of North Carolina School of Social Work; Kelly Harrington, University of Kansas School of Social Welfare; Adrianna Hernandez, Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver; Elizabeth Kronk, Columbia University School of Social Work; Ana Martin, New Mexico State University School of Social Work; Hannah Riley, University of Illinois, Chicago, School of Social Work; Eva Rizzo, California State University, San Bernardino, School of Social Work; Dana Underwood, Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver.

The NASW Florida Chapter was selected to receive funding from the Ruth Fizdale Chapter Research Program, one award of $3,000, which provides opportunities for chapters to conduct pilot research projects targeted to a specific emerging issue.

The chapter seeks to collect data on social work supervision in Florida in an effort to identify the type of supervision that is occurring, the populations they are serving, the type of agencies where they are employed, the challenges they face and the type of training they need.

The chapter aims to capture all types of supervision: clinical for licensure, administrative, clinical non-licensure, supportive and educational for practiums.

The results of the survey will be used in marketing the social work workforce. The chapter plans to host a social work supervision summit to highlight the survey results in 2016.

For more information, visit NASW Foundation.

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