Retired Faculty

Alison Aldrich headshotAlison Aldrich, LCSW-R, ACSW

Clinical Associate Professor; Adjunct Lecturer

Alison Aldrich served on the NYU Silver faculty from 2007-2019. She has considerable practice experience in the field of HIV and AIDS and her areas of interest include harm reduction strategies, disclosure issues in the LGBT and transgender communities, and substance abuse issues in marginalized communities. She was a frequent conference and workshop presenter on those topics. Within NYU Silver’s Office of Practicum Education and Community Partnerships Professor Aldrich developed and facilitated an LGBTQ Focused Learning Opportunity and Seminar and co-facilitated the Substance Abuse and Co Occurring Mental Health Disorder Focused Learning Opportunity and Seminar. Additionally, Professor Aldrich taught a Seminar in Field Instruction, served as a faculty advisor for the Animal Assisted Therapy in Social Work student group, and for Pride in Practice, NYU Silver’s LGBTQ student organization.

Alma Carten headshotAlma J. Carten, PhD, LCSW, ACSW

Associate Professor

Dr. Alma J. Carten, whose work focused on child and family well-being, served on the NYU Silver faculty from 1990-2017. In addition to holding prior academic positions, she held roles in New York City government, including Director of the Office of Adolescent Services, Interim Commissioner of the Child Welfare Administration and Special Advisor to the Commissioner/Administrator of the Human Resources Administration. Dr. Carten was president of the New York City Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers from 2000-2002, and is the recipient of the chapter’s highest social work leadership award. She is also a recipient of the NYU Silver’s Dorothy Height Humanitarian Award. Her latest book, Find a Way or Make One: A Documentary History of Clark Atlanta University Whitney M. Young Jr. School of Social Work (1920-2020), was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press.

Suzanne England headshotSuzanne England, MBA, PhD, MSW, BS

Professor

A former Dean (2001-09) of the School and faculty member from 2001-2020, Dr. Suzanne England’s more than 50-year career encompasses direct practice in Head Start, parent education, community and program development, health promotion and disease prevention, and more recently focusing on the use of new media in professional education, memory studies, and critical gerontology. She and her colleague, Professor of English Martha Rust, were awarded a National Endowment of the Humanities Enduring Questions Grant for their course, What is Memory? As Dean, she recruited new faculty, led in the establishment of the McSilver Institute for Poverty, Policy, and Research, founded what is now known as Silver’s Office of Global and Lifelong Learning, and redirected the undergraduate program to focus on human rights, social justice, and advocacy.

Martha Gabriel headshotMartha A. Gabriel, PhD, MSW

Associate Professor

Dr. Martha A. Gabriel served on the NYU Silver faculty from 1987-2018. Prior to coming to the Silver School, Dr. Gabriel was an associate in the Department of Psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and director of social work at the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center. Early in the AIDS epidemic, she worked in group services at Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Her areas of interest include health; mental health (particularly HIV); gay, lesbian, and transgender issues; and secondary traumatic stress. Her journal publications reflect a broad range of clinical issues, including such topics as boredom, group therapists’ countertransference issues, anniversary reactions, co-group leadership, vengeance, self-disclosure in lesbian therapists, and secondary traumatic stress in social work practitioners.  She was twice the recipient of the NYU Silver’s teaching award and received the NASW Diego Lopez Memorial AIDS Service Award in 1997.

Diane Grodney headshotDiane Grodney, PhD, LCSW, MS

Clinical Associate Professor

Dr. Diane Grodney served on the NYU Silver faculty from 1984-2018 and was Associate Director of Practicum Work for her first 17 years at the School. Her areas of interest include diversity and social justice, ethics in clinical practice, HIV/AIDS, bereavement, substance use, group work, and curriculum development. During her tenure, she taught professional foundation courses as well as the Integrative Seminar, the Seminar in Field Instruction (SIFI), and several other advanced seminars for practicum instructors. She was also an advisor for advanced concentration students. She has an extensive work history with people affected by HIV/AIDS, bereavement, and substance use, and maintains a private practice in Manhattan and New Jersey. Her practice includes clients from a wide range of backgrounds who are facing multiple life challenges.

Eva Lu headshotYuhwa Eva Lu, PhD, MSW, MA, BEd

Associate Professor

Dr. Yuhwa Eva Lu, who specializes in human diversity and social work practice, served on the NYU Silver faculty from 1997-2020 and has worked as a licensed Chinese bilingual/bicultural clinical social worker for more than 30 years. Dr. Lu’s course development and research focused on integrating mindfulness in social work practice, and applying the BMSS (Body-Mind-Social-Cultural and Spiritual) Integrative Healing Model to support Chinese and other A/API clients. In 2015, Dr. Lu established the Pacific Education Advocacy Research and Learning Institute (P.E.A.R.L. Institute) in New York, which is dedicated to the education, advocacy, research, and dissemination of information that contributes to culturally competent social work direct practice and other human services programs serving the United States, Pacific Rim populations, and beyond.

Virge Luce headshotVirgen Luce, ACSW, LCSW-R, MSW, BAd

Assistant Dean for Practicum Education and Community Partnerships; Clinical Associate Professor

Professor Virgen Luce served  NYU Silver from 2006-2022 as a devoted teacher, Practicum advisor, faculty leader and Practicum Education liaison for our Zelda Foster Studies Program in Palliative and End-of-Life Care, Director of our Post Master’s Certificate Program in Clinical Supervision, and, ultimately, Assistant Dean for Practicum Education and Community Partnerships. She has over forty years’ experience educating MSW students and supervising clinicians with a focus on those specializing in HIV/AIDS, Palliative Care and End-of-Life, Parkinson’s disease, and health care broadly.  She has given numerous presentations in the areas of practicum education and health care and co-authored a chapter entitled “Integrated health care roles for social workers” in the book Social Work and Integrated Care (Oxford University Press, 2017). Professor Luce received the 2011 Social Work Leadership Award from the NASW-NYC Latino Social Work Task Force and the 2019 Award for Excellence in Professional Education from the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network.

James I. Martin headshotJames I. Martin, PhD, MSW

Associate Professor

Dr. James I. Martin served on the NYU Silver faculty from 1997-2020, was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of the MSW Program from 2015-2020, and also directed the School’s PhD program from 2006-2011. A leading scholar on sexual and gender minority issues, he taught extensively in the masters and PhD programs and led efforts to revise the MSW curriculum to center matters of social justice, especially racism and other forms of oppression. Dr. Martin has been active for more than two decades in addressing bias and discrimination against SGM faculty and students in schools of social work. He is the founder and former co-chair of the Caucus of LGBT Faculty and Students in Social Work, and served as co-chair of the CSWE Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Expression and as a member of the NASW National Committee on LGBT Issues.

Maryellen Noonan headshotMaryellen Noonan, PhD, MA

Associate Professor

Dr. Maryellen Noonan served on the NYU Silver faculty from 1991-2018. She served for many years as Associate Dean of Academic Programs and MSW Program Director, and was later the Coordinator of Silver’s Rockland County Campus. Her professional career spans over 30 years of clinical practice in foster care, preventive service, and community mental health. In addition, Dr. Noonan served as a consultant to numerous community-based agencies and served for a number of years as the project coordinator for the NYU-CSS Brooklyn Women's Shelter. Dr. Noonan has published in a number of social work journals and co-authored a text on Short-Term Treatment and Social Work Practice. She has lectured extensively and been an invited presenter at many national conferences. Her teaching and research interests include working with mandated, difficult, and hard-to-reach clients; practice-based research, particularly in terms of process and outcome measures; short-term social work practice; the integration of social work theory and practice; and MSW practicum education.

Tazuko Shibusawa headshotTazuko Shibusawa, MSW, PhD, LCSW

Associate Professor

Dr. Tazuko Shibusawa served as an Associate Professor at NYU Silver from 2006- 2017. She served as Associate Dean for Professional Programs and MSW Program Director from 2011-2014 and was instrumental in establishing the School’s MSW Program at Shanghai and New York. Dr. Shibusawa’s clinical experiences include director of social services, Keiro Nursing Home in Los Angeles, California; psychiatric social worker, Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, Asian Pacific Counseling & Treatment Center; co-director of Counseling International in Tokyo, Japan; and mental health consultant for the World Health Organization. Dr. Shibusawa received post-graduate training in the areas of family therapy, psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy, and trauma studies. Dr. Shibusawa’s research focuses on the health and mental health of older adults and their families, including Asian immigrants, women who are at risk for abuse, and older adults who struggle with substance abuse. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the John A. Hartford Foundation Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program.

Judith Siegel headshotJudith P. Siegel, PhD, MSW

Professor

An NYU Silver faculty member from 1989-2020, Dr. Judith P. Siegel is an expert on intimacy and family relationships, neurobiology, and emotional regulation. Dr. Siegel is former Director of the School’s Post-Master’s Certificate program in Child and Family Therapy; current Director of our online Post-Master’s Certificate program in Advanced Assessment and Diagnosis, and taught extensively in the MSW and DSW programs. Dr Siegel was the Coordinator of the School’s Rockland County campus from 2004-2010 and chaired the Human Behavior in the Social Environment curriculum area. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Family Social Work from 2012-2019 and is widely published in the areas of couples treatment and the application of neurobiology to social work practice. In addition to many journal articles and book chapters, Dr. Siegel is the author of four books, most recently Stop Overreacting (2010; New Harbinger)

Ellen Tuchman headshotEllen Tuchman PhD, MSW

Associate Professor

Dr. Ellen Tuchman served on the NYU Silver faculty from 2005-2018, first as an Assistant Professor and from 2011 until her retirement as an Associate Professor and Coordinator for the New York State Office of Mental Health’s Evidence-Based Practice Project at the School. Dr. Tuchman was also an investigator on the NIDA funded Substance Abuse Research Education and Training (SARET) Program. Before coming to the School, she served as program manager for the New York State Department of Health Primary Care Initiative. Dr. Tuchman’s research interests include innovative, interdisciplinary substance abuse treatments; gender differences in substance abuse, with a focus on injecting drug using practices and HIV risk in the urban, resource-poor community on the Lower East side of New York City; and the integrating of evidenced based mental health practices in the classroom curriculum and practicum education.