Three Doctoral Students Awarded 2012 CSWE Minority Fellowships

Three Silver School of Social Work doctoral students have been awarded a 2012 Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Minority Fellowship. These students join the doctoral program's first awardee, Tricia Stephens, who received the CSWE Minority Fellowship in 2011. The highly competitive fellowship seeks out dedicated students who are devoted to the development of mental health and substance abuse research in improving the social well-being of underrepresented communities.

Jane Lee, 2012 cohort (Mentor: Professor Vincent Guilamo-Ramos)
Jane's research focuses on ascertaining the efficacy of family-based programs to influence the behavior of Latino adolescents and improve their mental health and well-being, and effectively implement these programs and services in real-world settings. Specifically, Latinos in the United States underutilize health care services and have the lowest rate of health insurance coverage, but experience elevated rates of depression, depressive symptoms, and diagnosable mental health illnesses compared to the overall general population. Jane is a research scientist at the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health(CLAFH).

Gabriel Robles, 2011 cohort (Mentor: Professor Vincent Guilamo-Ramos)
Gabriel's area of interest includes the integration of immigration/migration, language, and discrimination, and other macro-level issues into prevention programs for Latino youth and their families with particular attention to substance abuse and its unintended consequences (mental health issues and transmission of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections). His work effectively develops interventions using community-based frameworks in conducting culturally competent research. Gabriel is a research assistant at CLAFH.

Latoya Small, 2010 cohort (Mentor: Professor Mary McKay)
Latoya's research aims to increase the understanding of multi-level influences on specific needs and service use for HIV+ women living in high poverty communities. She will explore mechanisms by which gender, race, and poverty influence the need of HIV+ women and their adherence to care and receipt of services. Latoya will participate in a range of collaborative research projects at the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research as a research associate on the NIH-funded Collaborative HIV Prevention and Adolescent Mental Health Program South Africa (CHAMP+SA), a family-based HIV prevention and mental health intervention targeting adolescents in poverty.

Tricia Stephens, 2010 cohort (Mentor: Associate Professor Carol Tosone)
Tricia has spent the past year working on a qualitative study of a learning collaborative supporting New York State mental health clinics involved in the effectiveness study of Professor Mary McKay's project Multiple Family Groups (4Rs and 2Ss). She is now in the final stages of writing up findings and is scheduled for submission in the beginning of October. In addition, from 2010 to 2011 Tricia was involved in another qualitative study with Associate Professor Carol Tosone doing data analysis and theme development of Tosone's data set from clinicians who responded to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.