New Faculty and Leadership Roles at the Silver School

The following new faculty members will join the NYU Silver School of Social Work in January 2015.

Linda Lausell Bryant will join as clinical assistant professor and director of the undergraduate field learning program. In addition, she will be responsible for program development in the areas of child welfare and executive leadership, contributing to the master’s and undergraduate curricula, continuing education, and research. In September 2015, she will assume the role of executive-in-residence and Katherine and Howard Aibel Visiting Assistant Professor.

Lausell Bryant comes to NYU Silver from Inwood House, where she served as executive director since 2005. Inwood House is internationally recognized as a leader and innovator in youth development, teen pregnancy prevention, and teen family services. Prior to Inwood House, Lausell Bryant was associate commissioner for youth development at the NYC Administration for Children’s Services, deputy executive director of the Partnership for After School Education, and division director of School Violence Prevention Services at Victim Services. Lausell Bryant is a 2012 graduate of the Silver School’s PhD program and earned her MSW at Hunter College.

Rohini Pahwa will join as assistant professor from her postdoctoral position at the University of Southern California where she works with Professor John Brekke. Pahwa is interested in global mental health and community integration of persons with psychiatric disabilities. For her dissertation she conducted a global study, comparing community integration for persons with psychiatric disabilities in the United States and in India. She was recently a collaborator in an important integrated health study that demonstrated that peer providers served as effective Affordable Care Act health navigators for people with psychiatric disabilities. Pahwa will teach in the human behavior sequence in the School.

Courtney O’Mealley has assumed a new leadership position at the Silver School of Social Work. He was named director of social justice and diversity initiatives, effective in the fall 2014 semester. He also serves as assistant dean for student and alumni affairs and student ombudsman, where he has distinguished himself as a student advocate, able administrator, and creative program developer for student services. In his new role O’Mealley will:

• Partner with the Social Justice and Diversity Committee, the dean, and the associate dean to identify action steps to transform our community into one that celebrates social justice and diversity.
• As a member of the School's Social Justice and Diversity Committee, monitor and revise the School's Diversity and Social Justice Plan as outlined in the School's Strategic Plan, and create an outline for annual reporting on the School's social justice and diversity goals.
  
• Together with the dean and associate dean, implement and monitor the success of the School's social justice and diversity initiatives.
• Serve as a resource for students, faculty, and staff who have concerns related to social justice and diversity.