Curricula Vitae in Social Work - Dean's Office

Name	Personal Focus	Summary
Bree Alexander Clinical Assistant Professor	school-shooting trauma	Dr. Bree Alexander joined the faculty of the College of Social work in 2022. She is a licensed independent social worker (LISW-CP) in the states of South Carolina and Texas (LCSW-S). She completed her Bachelor’s degree in psychology at Furman University, Master’s degree in Social Work at the University of South Carolina (Columbia) and completed her PhD in Social Work at Baylor University where she was nominated by faculty at Baylor University for the most outstanding dissertation award.
Brandi Anderson Lecturer
Dr. Teri Browne Dean	Kidney disease, kidney transplant, health social work, Health disparities, Psychosocial barriers to chronic illness outcomes	Dr. Teri Browne is the Associate Dean for Faculty and Research and Associate Professor at the College of Social Work. Dr. Browne has a wealth of knowledge and teaching experience related to health social work including research on social work in health care settings, patient navigation, nephrology social work, kidney disease, kidney transplantation, and health disparities.
Lana M Cook Lecturer		Lana Cook joined the College of Social Work as a clinical faculty member in 2018. Previously, she served in various roles in the college, specifically as an integral member of the college’s field education office since 2013. During this time she coordinated over 40 professional trainings through the field education office’s continuing education series and was successful in promoting greater access to these through developing online learning opportunities to community partners statewide.
Margriet J De Zeeuw Wright Clinical Associate Professor	andragogy, trauma-informed social work education, Individual, relational and organizational factors impacting client satisfaction	Dr. Wright's research interests relate to the complexity of the helping process and the individual, relational, and organizational factors that impact client satisfaction. Employing qualitative research methods, Dr. Wright seeks to understand the experiences of those served by our efforts.
Rhonda L Dinovo Clinical Assistant Professor	Substance use prevention initiatives in communities and college campuses, Preventing and reducing high-risk behaviors related to alcohol and other substance use, Motivational interviewing	Professor DiNovo uses evidence-based prevention strategies to provide leadership for communities and organizations developing systems and processes directed at preventing and reducing high risk behaviors related to alcohol and other substance use. Her work emphasizes comprehensive assessment and evaluation, strategic planning, capacity building and collaboration with a variety of community partners to create an environment that engages youth and families in healthy, low-risk behaviors.
Dr. John Alexander Doering-white Assistant Professor	undocumented immigration and humanitarianism, grassroots shelters that assist Central Americans migrating through Mexico	Doering-White’s research has been funded by the Fulbright Garcia-Robles program, the Wenner Gren Foundation and the Institute for Field Research. His scholarship appears in Social Service Review, Children and Youth Services Review, the Journal of Social Work Education, the Journal of Community Practice, and the Journal of International Migration and Integration. He has also presented nationally and internationally on various topics, including undocumented migration and unaccompanied minors.
Scott D. Fairweather Lecturer	medicine
Professor Naomi Farber, PhD Associate Professor	Rural and urban poverty with special focus single mother families, adolescent pregnancy prevention, services to adolescent parents; HIV prevention	Dr. Farber has chaired the College's doctoral program since 2004 and has been with the University since 1998. She has studied adolescent pregnancy and written a book on that topic. Recent funded research efforts have focused on poor white single mothers in the South and kinship networks among rural African Americans.
Dr. Maryah Stella Fram Associate Professor	Child/family poverty, influences the growth and development of underprivileged children	Dr. Fram's research and service interests include early childhood, parenting, and women and poverty in the South. More specifically, Dr. Fram concentrates her research interests on maternal and child poverty, child care and early education, poverty policy and women's workforce participation and inequality, stratification and social capital theory. She is currently coordinator for the Capstone Sequence on the Curriculum Committee and is also active in both the policy and research sequences.
Elizabeth (Ann) Gowdy Lecturer
Dr. Breanne Leigh Grace Associate Professor	Area Studies (Africa), Social Welfare/ Social Work, Policy	Breanne Grace, Ph.D. uses an intersectional approach to compare refugees' experience of social and legal citizenship rights in durable solutions with how governments, NGOs, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees conceptualize rights in program design and measure rights in evaluation. She is especially interested in the ways refugees draw upon formal and informal institutions and transnational networks to access health care and social rights.
Dr. Robert Hock Associate Professor	Autism, Family Intervention, Child Welfare	Dr. Hock's research interests are informed by his clinical work with children and families in mental health settings. Specifically, Dr. Hock uses qualitative and quantitative research methods to examine the relationship between family adjustment (coparenting quality, parent stress, depression) and child outcomes (adaptive behaviors, mental health, treatment responsiveness). In addition, Dr. Hock is adapting evidence-based parent interventions to be used with parents of children with autism.
Dr. Aidyn Lorraine Iachini Professor	Social Work	My primary research interest focuses on the organizational systems/processes and social/leadership factors that influence positive youth development both within schools and in out-of-school time (OST) settings. In schools, I am specifically interested in school mental health systems and factors influencing their design and implementation. Within the OST setting, I am specifically interested in leadership and other factors that influence programmatic design and implementation.
Dr. Sue Ellen Levkoff Professor	Aging, health and wellness, gerontology, geriatric medicine, managed care, Alzheimer's disease	Dr. Sue Levkoff is one of the nation's most prolific scholars in social gerontology. Her work will focus on developing technologies that will enable older adults to remain at home in the community with adequate supports, both for them and their caregivers.
Jennifer McArdle Lecturer		Jennifer Bosio-McArdle joined the College of Social Work as a clinical faculty member in 2022. Previously she served as an integral member of the College’s field education office as the Assistant Director of Field Education from 2018 – 2021 and as the MSW Field Placement Coordinator from 2008 – 2018. She was responsible for supporting the identification and management of field education placement logistics, the preparation required for students, field instructors, and task supervisors.
Candice R Morgan Clinical Assistant Professor		Candice Morgan began her appointment as Master of Social Work coordinator for the College of Social Work Greenville site in August 2020. She has worked in various capacities at the college since 2011. In addition to serving as an adjunct instructor, Morgan has been a field instructor to supervise, monitor and evaluate students at field locations.
Michael T Ottone Senior Instructor	Adolescent Substance Use/Abuse	Mr. Ottone has particular experience working direct clinical services with incarcerated adolescents and adolescent substance use/abuse. While at the Department of Juvenile Justice he created, developed, and oversaw the implementation of a new substance use treatment program, saving the agency significant funds previously designated for outside contract services. He continues to have a strong interest in building up community resources and supports for troubled youths.
Dr. Otis (Shaun) Owens Associate Professor	Health and Cancer Communications with diverse populations, Technology for health promotion and informed decision making in aging adults, Smart and connected health	Dr. Shaun Owens uses community-based research methods to develop sustainable, technology-based interventions, products, and services for aging adults. His work focuses primarily on the development and evaluation of embodied conversational agents (i.e., avatars) for promoting informed health and cancer decision making among African Americans.
Ms. Patrice F Penney Clinical Assistant Professor		Ms. Penney has practiced clinically for over thirty years with diverse at-risk children and families both in Chicago and East Africa and specializes in child and family therapy and developmental (child) trauma. She is passionate about clinical training and supervision and also committed to non-formal training as well, including creating curricula and programs for caregivers of African orphaned and vulnerable children.
Dr. Melania Popa Mabe Clinical Associate Professor		Melania Popa-Mabe was promoted to her current title of Clinical Assistant Professor in 2018 after teaching as an adjunct instructor at the College of Social Work since 2015. Some of the courses she taught included, Social Policy Analysis, International Social Work and Social Justice, and Human Behavior and Social Environment. She has also taught social work courses at Winthrop University, Bryn Mawr College and West University of Timisoara in Romania.
Parthenia Robinson (Luke) Research Assistant Professor
Dr. Benjamin Roth Associate Professor	Immigration policy, Immigrant integration, Urban/suburban poverty	My practice background in social work is with court-involved immigrant youth and their families and human rights work in Latin America. My research examines how Latino immigrants adapt to life in the United States, with a focus on nontraditional settlement areas such as suburbs. I also study the geography of the social services safety net. I use qualitative methods and spatial analysis (GIS) to explore structural factors that facilitate and constrain immigrant integration.
Dr. Kristen D. Seay Associate Professor	child maltreatment prevention, substance use disorders, parenting	Through her scholarship, Dr. Seay seeks to decrease child maltreatment, enhance parenting, and improve the well-being of vulnerable children and families. Her research focuses on the impact and treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs) in families with a particular focus on the relationship from SUDs to the occurrence of child abuse and neglect. Her recent projects have focused on child welfare–involved families where caregiver substance abuse is present.
Dr. Terry A. Wolfer Professor	social work education, case method teaching, volunteerism, congregational social work, faith-based social services, religion and health	Dr. Wolfer is coordinator for the values and ethics content in the MSW curriculum and serves on the Learning Outcomes Subcommittee. He has been very active in the development of the capstone course; he has written many decision cases and articles about the decision case method of instruction and has co-edited three books of decision cases. He also chairs the Executive Committee of the College. Faith-based social services and violence and trauma are among Dr. Wolfer's research interests.
Dr. Bongki Woo Assistant Professor	health and mental health consequences of inequality in society, sociocultural and environmental determinants of health, how air pollution exposure interacts with individual, family, and environmental-level stressors	Assistant Professor Bongki Woo joined the faculty of the College of Social Work in 2018. He received his Ph.D. at the Boston College School of Social Work in May 2018 and previously earned his Master of Social Work degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Woo has published on the topics of racial discrimination, stress and stress reactions, and neighborhood characteristics that influence minority health and well-being.
Dr. Nikki R Wooten Associate Professor	Substance Use and Psychological Problems in Military Personnel and Veterans, Gender differences in military behavioral health service utilization, Deployment stressors and post-deployment mental health	Nikki R. Wooten, PhD, LISW-CP, is an early career investigator who is a 2010 NIDA Social Work Research Scholar. Dr. Wooten is a licensed clinical social worker with almost 18 years of experience providing services to civilian and military families as a child therapist at the Navy Family Advocacy Program, Social Work Consultant for the Armed Forces Center for Child Protection at the National Naval Medical Center, medically underserved communities, and vulnerable children and families.
Dr. Yanfeng Xu, PhD Assistant Professor	Foster care and kinship care, Child abuse and neglect, Child well-being	Dr. Xu’s research centers on the well-being of children and their caregivers in kinship care and non-kinship foster care.