Fall 2017 - Winter 2018 MSU School of Social Work Newsletter MSU-Social-Work-2017-2018-Newsletter | Page 13
Elizabeth Meier:
Organizational
effectiveness
oselyn Kaihula is from Tanzania and
earned her Bachelor in Social Work
degree from the Institute of Social Work
in Tanzania. After graduating, she was employed
as Child Rights Specialist at Ekama Development
Foundation where her work involved conducting
research, advocacy, and policy analysis for human
rights and child rights-related activities.
In 2015, Kaihula won a prestigious MasterCard Fellowship to
study in the Master of Social Work, Organization, and Community
Leadership concentration at Michigan State University. During this
time, Kaihula worked with Tanzania Partnership Project–MSU
to develop girls mentoring clubs in Tanzania. The model is aimed
at empowering girls to realize their potential. Moreover, she also
worked with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to assess
community participation in educational issues as well as elements
associated with variation in school attendance among groups of
children.
Additionally, Kaihula worked with Dr. Steven Anderson in
understanding marginalized and low-income families’ perspectives
toward access to water in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Kaihula’s PhD
research interests involve social aspects of environmental justice,
particularly finding ways to help communities conserve their
environment and at the same time ensure access to fundamental
human rights. She is currently a research assistant to Dr. Hyunkag
Cho, investigating intimate partner violence among college students
and their help-seeking behaviors.. lizabeth (Betsy) Meier
earned her Master of
Social Work degree from
Grand Valley State University.
For the past seven years, she
has provided mental health
counseling
to
individuals,
families, and groups, with a
focus on survivors of trauma, including but not
limited to child sexual abuse, sexual assault/
rape, domestic violence, and community violence.
Meier has worked in multiple nonprofit outpatient
settings and a maximum-security men’s prison, and
is currently a board member for a Grand Rapids
harm reduction organization that seeks to address
HIV, hepatitis C, and overdose.
Meier is interested in researching social
movement
organization
effectiveness,
the
de-radicalization of social justice movements/
organizations over time, and the phenomenon of
systematized perpetuation of trauma by helping
professions/institutions. Meier is currently working
with Dr. Sacha Klein on a national evaluation study
of the effectiveness of an attachment-based program
for caregivers of teenagers.
R
Have you ever considered earning
your PhD in social work?
Does it sound exciting to become an
expert on a topic that’s important to you?
Are you interested in research that can be
used to address practice issues or social
problems?
Do you think you might enjoy teaching
and mentoring students?
If you would like to learn more about a PhD in social
work, including coursework, financial support, and
working with a faculty mentor, please contact
Dr. Angie Kennedy at [email protected].
Fall 2017/Winter 2018 SSW NEWS
E
Roselyn Kaihula:
Social aspects of
environmental justice
Lucas Prieto:
Mental health of
LGBT populations
L
ucas Prieto earned his
Bachelor of Science
in Sociology with a
concentration
in
criminal
justice from Central Michigan
University. Upon graduation
from CMU, Prieto worked
as a mental health worker
in a behavioral health hospital. He then received
his Master of Social Work from the University of
Michigan. While working on his MSW degree,
Prieto interned at Wayne State University as a
mental health counselor. His research interests
are sexual health, sexuality, and LGBT aging. He is
especially interested in the comorbidity between
sexual dysfunction and mental health problems in
LGBT populations. Prieto is currently working with
Dr. Deirdre Shires researching health providers’
willingness to treat transgender patients.
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