School Updates
Faculty and Staff News 2022
Read about the new faculty and staff, promotions, and faculty awards.
New Faculty
Two new tenure-stream assistant professors have joined the school: Victor Figuereo and Nev Jones.
Brooke Rawls is a new assistant professor and academic coordinator for the Child Welfare Education for Baccalaureates program.
New Postdoctoral Fellow
Thomas Buckley has joined the school as a postdoctoral fellow in gerontology.
New Staff
Carolyn Falk is the new academic administrator and the BASW and PhD program assistant.
Leah Mafrica has joined the school as the recruitment and admissions coordinator.
The Just Discipline Project added four new restorative practice coordinators: Jamaal Gosa, Molly Means, Spencer Scott, and Michele Snyder.
New Positions and Promotions
James Huguley has been named the inaugural associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion and promoted to associate professor with tenure.
Elizabeth Mulvaney is the new chair of the direct practice specialization within the MSW program.
Elizabeth Osayande-Davis has been named director of operations for the Just Discipline Project.
Marlo Perry has been promoted to research associate professor.
Helen Petracchi has been named associate dean for academic affairs.
Tonya Slawinski is the new director of field education.
John Wallace is the new interim director of the Center on Race and Social Problems.
Center Award
The Center on Race and Social Problems received the 2020 University Prize for Strategic, Inclusive, and Diverse Excellence from the University of Pittsburgh Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. The award is presented to the outstanding school, division, department, or office making a significant contribution to fostering equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Faculty Awards
Associate Professor Sara Goodkind and James Huguley, associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, won 2021 See the Best in Me Awards from Gwen’s Girls and the Black Girls Equity Alliance.
Huguley received the 2021 Society for Social Work and Research Excellence in Research Award for his meta-analytic review on racial socialization that was published as a lead article in Psychological Bulletin.
An interdisciplinary team led by Huguley was one of three $115,000 winners in the Pitt Innovation Challenge for its project, Parenting While Black: Healing and Growing Together, a program that provides Black parents with tools to promote positive racial socialization, mental health, and academic achievement in their adolescents. Other School of Social Work team members were Kyndra Cleveland, research associate at the Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP); PhD student Cecily Davis; and Rachelle Haynik, CRSP research coordinator.
BASW Program Director and Assistant Professor Toya Jones was named a 2021 Black Educator of the Year by the State of Black Learning conference.