Faculty Initiatives

Founded by Clinical Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Linda Lausell Bryant in 2016, the institute enables students, alumni, and human service practitioners to learn and apply the adaptive framework to engage challenges and support social change in their work. This growing community aims to promote connection and collaboration by engaging complex barriers to social justice in the human services field.

Established by Clinical Assistant Professor Kirk “Jae” James, Evolving Justice (EJ) is an educational initiative for social workers, advocates, and concerned people that aims to build community; co-create brave space; and facilitate various dialogue(s) towards the emancipatory exploration of JUSTICE in theory and action. EJ further believes that central to the aim of JUSTICE is a reimagination of humanity in which no one is their worst action, disposable, or denied an opportunity to fully actualize!

Developed and edited by Dr. Gary Holden, Information for Practice is a unique, international, online resource for social care/social welfare/social work professionals that focuses on aggregating news and new scholarship for professional practice. In addition to editing the constantly updated, free service, hosted at ifp.nyu.edu, Dr. Holden manages the @Info4Practice Twitter feed.

Directed by Professor Michelle R. Munson, the Youth and Young Adult Mental Health Group (YYAMH-G) is a group of invested partners dedicated to understanding the transition to adulthood among vulnerable populations of youth and young adults, and learning how to make the transition more successful for more young people. More specifically, the group draws on the expertise of individuals from across the United States to develop knowledge, practice approaches, and implementation strategies. The group utilizes mixed-method research. and all of its work is guided by the YYAMH-G Advisory Group.

Directed by Clinical Assistant Professor Sophia Tsesmelis Piccolino, NYU Silver’s Zelda Foster Studies Program in Palliative and End-of-Life Care (PELC) encompasses a range of initiatives designed to develop and mentor the next generation of social work leaders in palliative and end-of-life care with a social justice mission that includes increasing provider diversity and access for under-served populations. The program’s namesake, Zelda Foster, was a pioneer in the development of the hospice movement in the United States, a leader in the field of PELC, and a teacher at NYU Silver’s Post-Master’s Certificate Program in PELC from its inception in 1999 until May 2006. After Zelda died in July of 2006, the School, led by retired Clinical Professor Susan Gerbino, established this program in her honor.