Getting to know new social work faculty for 2022-23
The VCU School of Social Work has seven faculty who are starting their first full academic year with the school. They include three teaching faculty who joined us in the spring and one of whom is now our director of field education; and four tenure-track faculty with a focus on research.
Adrienne Baldwin-White, Ph.D.
Assistant professor
Started Fall 2022
Position before joining VCUSSW
University of Georgia School of Social Work, assistant professor
Research focus
My research focuses on gender-based violence prevention; specifically the integration of technology into prevention and intervention programming.
Why VCU?
I wanted to join VCU because my work is really focused on making a community impact. I knew being at VCU would provide the support I needed to make community partnerships, and create programming that makes a real community impact.
What experiences are you excited to bring to and share with VCUSSW?
I am very excited to share how I have integrated technology into program development by creating an online training for police officers, a video game and a smartphone app.
What is your focus for Fall 2022?
I will be focusing on starting my research agenda and looking for the expertise I need to add to my team to finish developing my video game. I will also continue my work collaborating with a police department on a training I created to develop an evaluation plan. I will also be working to develop an evaluation plan for a smartphone app I developed to educate medical professionals on trauma-informed medicine.
What is your message about the need for and importance of social workers at this time?
Especially now with many Supreme Court rulings stripping people of their rights, it is more important that we have social workers being change agents and advocates in our community. Social workers are essential in fighting for social justice, and now more than ever, we are needed to secure equity for marginalized and oppressed groups.
Outside of work
I have written a fiction novel. I had dreams of being a fiction writer while getting my M.S.W.
Qasarah Bey Spencer, Ed.D.
Assistant professor in teaching
Started Spring 2022
Previous experience as VCUSSW community-embedded (adjunct) faculty member
2018 – April 2022 and field instructor since 2010
Position before joining VCUSSW
Lower School administrator, Anna Julia Cooper School, Richmond
What experiences are you excited to bring to and share with VCUSSW?
As a macro practitioner, my experience centers on asset-based community development in marginalized communities; equity and social justice in public and private education; and community education regarding race and social justice. This knowledge contributes to my awareness that my engagement with students in the classroom and the field is only a part of their learning journey and professional development. I hope to cultivate a comfort level in students for ambiguity and life-long learning.
My experiences as a working professional give me a perspective of social work practice that is broader than the traditional idea of social work. I hope I can continue to help students see more possibilities for their own career pathways.
Why higher education?
I initially wanted to work in information systems. I was in denial about my love of learning and interest in teaching. After switching from working in the corporate arena to social work and ministry, I discovered an affinity for facilitating learning as I progressed through my career. I have taught a variety of ages, from prekindergarten through older adults. However, I recognized as an adjunct faculty my preference for teaching adult learners in the higher education context. I appreciate being able to collaborate with bright minds, students and colleagues alike. I consider it a privilege to be able to create learning environments that foster transformative learning and successful academic attainment.
What are your areas of interest and your teaching style?
My areas of interest include social and emotional learning, educational equity, scholarship of learning and teaching in higher education, transformative teaching pedagogy, and inclusive teaching pedagogy. While I don’t have to research or publish, I would like to research and publish in these areas.
My teaching and learning philosophy is grounded in transformative/liberative, critical and relational frameworks. I find students benefit from assignments that help them connect their real-world experiences with course content and research in relevant and tangible ways. Assignments that foster student efficacy and critical thinking can move students beyond getting all the “right” answers into the space of academic risk-taking, confidence and competence.
What is your message about the need for and importance of social workers at this time?
Wow, this is a great question. At this moment in time, there is a need for social workers who can bring imagination and creativity to social work practice. It will be important to develop new strategies and systems that address historic and continuing threats to global life and well-being for all people.
Outside of work
I’m blessed to be the parent of three amazing children and one fur baby, and YaYa to two incredible grandchildren. I enjoy cultivating houseplants and watching movies. I am discovering birdwatching and exploring other interests as I transition into a different pace of life.
Cassie DeSena-Jacobs, D.S.W., LCSW
Assistant professor in teaching
Started Spring 2022
Previous experience as VCUSSW community-embedded (adjunct) faculty member
Since August 2019
Position before joining VCUSSW
I have been in private practice for the last 6 years. Two years ago, at the beginning of COVID-19, I opened my own trauma-focused private practice that exclusively provides teletherapy. My practice primarily works with extensive trauma, as well as the LGBTQIA community, including gender-affirming work.
What experiences are you excited to bring to and share with VCUSSW?
I have experience on both micro and macro levels. As a clinical social worker, I have worked in various settings, from community social work to residential care to acute hospital work. My experience has allowed me to develop my clinical skill set and learn how to translate that skill set into different environments. It has also provided me with an opportunity to learn and practice a variety of therapeutic models. I bring my clinical experience, including stories, role plays, and case studies, into the classroom.
I have a master’s degree in nonprofit management and have held clinical supervisor and clinical director roles. I also have experience building nonprofits from the ground up, including experience in fundraising, grant writing, advocacy, policy work, legalities of nonprofits, and how to ensure a nonprofit is also financially successful. These experiences transfer into macro work and translate to my students.
Why higher education?
Higher education was not necessarily a goal for me, let alone teaching in it. I am a first-generation college graduate. My father left school in the ninth grade to work in his parent’s produce store. When I first entered college, I was very lost and often felt like I did not belong.
As I obtained higher levels of education, including my two master’s and doctorate, I am sure to remember that version of myself. This eventually led to my looking for a position in higher education. I want to be able to be a trusted mentor for students that had a similar experience to my own.
What are your areas of interest and your teaching style?
My research has focused on utilizing trauma-informed models to shift high levels of suspension and expulsion in elementary schools. As part of my doctorate, I created a curriculum for elementary school staff that focused on inherent bias awareness, cultural competency, trauma-informed learning, and the importance of relationship-building in schools.
My teaching areas of interest include clinical work, trauma, and working with the LGBTQIA community. My teaching philosophy includes looking at students as my colleagues and making time for their thoughts and perspectives in the classroom. In my clinical courses, I designate time for students to have group supervision and discuss cases from their fieldwork. I bring in outside speakers and have created assignments that can go on their resumes for jobs (like a podcast assignment focused on clinical work with experts).
I ask students what they hope the course will cover and do my best to adjust to meet their needs. I recently got my doctorate, so I know what it is like to go to school during COVID-19 with a family and a job. I am empathetic to the mental, emotional and physical toll.
What is your message about the need for and importance of social workers at this time?
If the quote “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor” by Desmond Tutu resonates with you, stays with you, is how you live your life, then social work is for you.
Outside of work
I believe that social workers must make time for self-care outside of the world we work in. I try to do that with my husband of over 10 years and three children (ages 8, 3 and 3 months). For us, that means going to the beach, going on hikes, cooking together and watching movies. I am Italian and from New York, and my culture is significant to me. In my (rare) free time, I love to take walks, swim and read.
Mer Francis, Ph.D.
Assistant professor
Started Fall 2022
Position before joining VCUSSW
Washington University (St. Louis), postdoctoral scholar
Research focus
My research focuses on how people use their social networks to build social recovery capital and recover from alcohol and substance use disorders in the context of familial substance use, genetic history, interpersonal stressors and structural traumas.
Why VCU?
The VCUSSW is the perfect place to merge my interests in teaching diverse and stellar students, continuing high-quality research, and connecting deeply with the community. In addition, the VCUSSW is such a welcoming space – I’ve felt at home here right from the very first!
What experiences are you excited to bring to and share with VCUSSW?
I’m excited to bring my 11+ years of clinical social work experience in multidisciplinary community mental and behavioral health treatment, my experience as a transdisciplinary researcher, and my community activism work into the classroom and research space! I’m also disabled and Queer / transgender non-binary, and I’m I’d love to connect with the LGBTQ+ and disability communities at our school.
What is your focus for Fall 2022?
I’m looking forward to teaching Mental, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (SLWK 703) in the M.S.W. Program, and I’m excited to get to work in our vibrant research community!
What is your message about the need for and importance of social workers at this time?
The recent spate of state- and federal-level legislation targeting civil rights for multiple communities shows just how important it is to have a clinical, policy and research workforce that is ethically-bound, culturally-grounded and comfortable in both the micro and macro practice worlds. Social workers are trained advocates who bridge the gaps between individuals and systems in all the types of work we do. The skills we have are so vital for helping our society navigate difficult decisions. We are change agents, and we have a lot to do!
Outside of work
I merge my love of fandoms and running by running races in costume. Come by my office and check out my collection of fandom art!
Jacob Goffnett, Ph.D.
Assistant professor
Started Summer 2022
Position before joining VCUSSW
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, School of Social Work, assistant professor
Research focus
I use a transformative paradigm to explore biopsychosocial pathways to health for LGBTQ+ youth. I am particularly interested in community-engaged methods that center the voices of LGBTQ+ youth to dismantle social injustice and promote health equity.
Why VCU?
For me, learning and growth blossom through connections to other humans, so I am drawn to the School of Social Work to connect with scholars whose work has been informative to our profession and with students from various backgrounds. I look forward to strengthening my scholarship and myself.
What experiences are you excited to bring to and share with VCUSSW?
A seminal feature of my scholarship is sharing human experiences that resist the dominant societal narrative. I have 10 years of social work practice experience with youth across different systems of care and a wealth of personal experience growing up queer in rural Midwest. I am excited to share those experiences.
What is your focus for Fall 2022?
In Fall 2022, I will be teaching one of my absolute favorite classes, Person in Society. I will also continue work on a research project examining the psychophysiological impact of affirming and non-affirming experiences for transgender and gender diverse adults in a virtual reality environment.
Outside of work
I am moving to Richmond with my two dogs (Olive and Liberty) and fiancé, Nate. I am a Michigan native (yes, I will point out my hometown on my hand-map) and have also lived in Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas. I am passionate about running, yoga, reading (for pleasure) and video games.
McKenzie N. Green, Ph.D.
Assistant professor and iCubed scholar
Started Fall 2022
Position before joining VCUSSW
National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow (Social, Behavioral, and Economic Services Directorate)
Research focus
My research examines how racial and familial processes intersect to impact the development and wellbeing of Black and Multiracial-Black young people. I specifically root my scholarship in critical and intersectional frameworks that highlight the heterogeneity of Black youth and family experiences, service needs and life outcomes.
Why VCU?
I was really attracted to the School of Social Work’s commitment to promoting equity and justice through community-engaged research and teaching. As a trained community psychologist, I also value the interdisciplinary nature of the school and our faculty!
What experiences are you excited to bring to and share with VCUSSW?
I am a proud alumna of VCU (B.S.’17/H&S), so I’m really excited to return to campus and to expand my program of research here. I am also eager to use my personal experiences and professional background in community psychology as a lens to assist the School of Social Work in their ongoing efforts to promote intersectional social justice and equity for marginalized groups.
Outside of work
I love my work, but I also have a lot of identities and interests outside of it! I am a wife, dog momma and sister. I am also a self-proclaimed foodie, group fitness enthusiast, and I love to travel!
Shenita Williams, Ph.D., LCSW
Director of field education and assistant professor in teaching
Started Spring 2022
Previous experience as VCUSSW community-embedded (adjunct) faculty member
2016-2021 as both adjunct faculty and adjunct field liaison
Position before joining VCUSSW
School social worker, Henrico County Public Schools
What experiences are you excited to bring to and share with VCUSSW?
27 years of practice experience working across various settings (private practice, community-based practice, public school settings, community service boards).
Most of my experience is centered around the mental health of children and adults, particularly in the Black community. As a faculty member my practice experience and research experiences help with balancing and further enriching the faculty/staff and students
Why higher education?
I am a two-time alum of VCU’s School of Social Work and like being able to have a direct impact and influence on the professional growth and development of students, the program and the profession. Higher ed was not always my goal. Yet, I knew that I wanted to remain in close proximity to teaching aspiring social workers because of my practice experience.
What are your areas of interest and your teaching style?
I am interested in student mental health as it relates to the support that they receive in educational settings and how educational settings meet the mental health needs of students, with an emphasis on Black students.
I consider myself an experiential teacher. I like to contextualize concepts and ideas in various ways, using in-class activities, such as visualizations, community events, etc., to ‘bring life to the concept.’ As teaching faculty, I am not required to do any research or publish. However, outside of my responsibilities, I continue to do both research and presentation at conferences and publication of articles.
What is your message about the need for and importance of social workers at this time?
As cliche as it is … the time is now. However, you must decide if the time is right for you. The field of social work is in need of social workers who are allies and accomplices … and at the end of the day, people who do what is right because it is the right thing to do.
Outside of work
Proud mom to a 15-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old rescue. I enjoy the smell of rain, fresh cut grass and charcoal in a grill. I am a Gemini.