Research

NYU Silver Leads at SSWR 2024

By NYU Silver Communications OfficeJan 24, 2024

C+M Silver Center Symposium Presenters (left to right): Sadiq Yusuf Patel (Waymark), Deborah Layman (NYS Office of Mental Health/Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene), Aaron Rodwin, Amanda Ritchie, Dr. Nicholas Lanzieri, Dr. Anne Dempsey, Dr. Marya Gwadz, Dean Michael A. Lindsey, Dr. Michelle Munson, Nari Yoo

“We’re rocking it,” said Dean Michael A. Lindsey during remarks at the School’s reception on Jan. 12 in Washington, DC. “We’re doing impactful work. There’s so many of our faculty who are NIH funded and new grants are coming in. Thank you for all that you do to make the world better and to make NYU Silver look great.”

We are especially proud of our NYU Silver faculty and doctoral students whose achievements were recognized during the conference.

Dean Michael A. Lindsey was inducted as President of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare on Jan. 13, at the same time that NYU President Linda G. Mills was among eight new Fellows inducted into the Academy. The Academy is the nation’s top honorific society for scholars and practitioners who are leading in the field of social work and social welfare.

NYU Silver researchers were also prominent during the SSWR Awards. Professor and Associate Dean for Research Marya Gwadz and colleagues received SSWR’s Excellence in Research Award for their study of behavioral interventions promoting engagement in care among African American/Black and Latino people living with HIV.

Professor Wen-Jui Han and Alum Liwei Zhang, PhD ’19, received SSWR’s Excellence in Research Honorable Mention for their study examining the relationship between parental precarious employment and child poverty.

PhD student Fatima Mabrouk, who was recently elected SSWR Student Director-at-Large, received a SSWR Doctoral Student Travel Award that enabled her to attend and present her work at the conference. Similarly, PhD candidate Sabrina Cluesman received a scholarship for the conference from the Caucus of LGBTQ Faculty & Students in Social Work.

Also, PhD candidate Nari Yoo received a Grand Challenges for Social Work Doctoral Award for her dissertation project harnessing technology to address the linguistic and cultural barriers immigrants with limited English proficiency face in accessing mental health services.

Dr. Dale Maglalang stands in a large conference ballroom next to a digital screen with his research poster presentation — Dr. Dale Maglalang | Poster Presentation: Discrimination, Internalized Homophobia, and Smoking in Young Men Who Have Sex with Men

In addition to all the honors, more than three dozen presentations, posters, symposia, and events featured work by NYU Silver faculty, students and researchers.

Here are some of the highlights of our contributions to the conference:

A symposium hosted by our Constance and Martin Silver Center on Data Science and Social Equity displayed innovative projects by NYU Silver faculty and PhD students using AI and data science to solve social problems and strengthen social work education. Presenters included Clinical Associate Professors Anne Dempsey and Nicholas Lanzieri, Dean Michael A. Lindsey, Professor Michelle Munson, and PhD candidates Aaron Rodwin and Nari Yoo.
A roundtable organized by, PhD student Fatima Mabrouk, and also featuring PhD candidate Gerri Connaught, PhD student Khadija Israel and Columbia University PhD candidate Chelsea Allen, explored the impact of implicit biases and microaggressions on Black social work students.
The Grand Challenges for Social Work’s Roundtable, focused on increasing the initiative’s engagement and impact, included a presentation by Dean Emeritus and Paulette Goddard Professor Neil Guterman on the new Grand Challenge to Prevent Gun Violence.
A symposium organized by Professor Deborah Padgett, for which she was also the discussant, highlighted policy-relevant homelessness research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An oral presentation session moderated by Assistant Professor Kathrine Sullivan, at which she also presented two studies, focused on meeting the behavioral health needs of service members, veterans and their families.
A symposium on Assertive Community Treatment at 50, at which Professor Victoria Stanhope was both the discussant and a presenter, assessed the current status of ACT within today’s vastly changed community mental health care contexts and considered the evidence-based practice’s future.
An invited symposium on social work science, whose voices matter and how we can make space for civil disagreement, featured Professor Michelle Munson among the speakers.

We hope our strong presence at the conference – including our well-attended reception – gave attendees a chance to learn a bit more about NYU Silver, including our NIH grant application success rate that is twice as high as the NIH payline; our leadership in AI and data science for social good; the robust support our Office for Research provides for impactful research; our commitment to social work values; and our collegial, collaborative community.

Please stay connected with us, visit our website, and follow NYU Silver on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Threads to learn about our future events and how our scholars are shaping the field.