Meet Caren L. Putzu, Ph.D. candidate
Putzu, a Ph.D. candidate in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work, holds an M.S.W. from the University of South Carolina and an M.P.A. from the College of Charleston. Her interests lie in contributing to a deeper understanding of effective prevention and intervention approaches to school dropout. Her dissertation, “Helping Students Graduate: An Examination of the Services Provided […]
Meet Lisa A. Gray, Ph.D. candidate
Gray is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University whose interests lie in advancing mental health among military service members, veterans and their families. She holds an M.S.S.W. from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.S.W. from Texas State University. Her mixed methods dissertation, “Exploring the Dimensions of Well-Being among Military […]
Meet Megan E. Gandy, Ph.D. candidate
Gandy’s work addresses the quality of mental health services for children and adolescents, specifically focusing on the unique needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning young persons in treatment. Her dissertation research, “Assessing LGBTQ Cultural Competency in Direct Care Youth Workers,” is a measurement design study which creates and tests a tool to assess LGBTQ-related cultural competency […]
Meet D. Crystal Coles, Ph.D. candidate
Coles is a Ph.D. candidate and adjunct instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University, as well a third-year fellow in the CSWE Minority Fellowship Program. Her scholarship interest practice experiences lie in the public child welfare arena, with an emphasis on trauma-informed social work practice, overall systemic functioning and systemic contribution to childhood trauma. She is committed to addressing the needs […]
Meet Jennifer L.K. Charles, Ph.D. candidate
Charles is a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned her M.S.W. from Barry University after earning a B.A. from Virginia Tech. Her pre- and post-M.S.W. practice experience was in community mental health, substance abuse services and psychiatric social work. Specifically, Charles worked in a crisis stabilization unit and as an outpatient […]
Meet Andrew C. Schoeneman, Ph.D. candidate
Schoeneman’s interests lie in contributing to a deeper understanding of collaboration, mobilization and organizing within and among communities. His dissertation, “Collaboration Between Communities and Legal Aid Organizations: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study,” funded in part by the Legal Services Corporation of Virginia, explores attorneys’ and client community members’ perceptions and experiences related to collaboration.
Finding connections between genes and adolescent substance abuse
Cristina Bares, Ph.D. at Virginia Commonwealth University was recently awarded a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for research on Genetic Contributions to Smoking and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence. The five year award includes training and research on quantitative genetics, genetic epidemiology and molecular genetics to uncover the genetic-mediated […]
Meet the newest students to join the school’s doctoral program
The doctoral social work program is pleased to introduce our incoming 2014 cohort of students. Doctoral students are not only here as learners, but are also highly integrated into faculty research projects and often teach classes in our B.S.W. and M.S.W. programs. Doctoral students complete their own dissertation research to advance knowledge that can be […]
Ph.D. program update
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social work Ph.D. Program Director, Sarah Kye Price, Ph.D. has recently announced her decision to step down as program director to focus on her research to advance maternal and child health and enhance mental health services for women during and around the time of pregnancy. In her role as director, Price made […]
Ph.D. students, Megan Gandy and Lisa Gray receive the Robin McKinney Dissertation Honor Fund
Congratulations to this year’s recipients of the Virginia Commonwealth University Robin McKinney Dissertation Honor Fund, Megan Gandy and Lisa Gray