Below are candidate statements from individuals joining CSWE's Board of Directors as a result of the 2010 election.
Treasurer
Denise Montcalm, MSW, PhD
University of Nevada, Reno
I would be honored to serve on the Board of Directors of the Council on Social Work Education as treasurer. I have been a faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno since 1993, where I have served as the BSW Program Coordinator for 13 years and the school’s director since January 2004. I am a long time member of BPD, CSWE, SSWR, AGE-SW, and NADD. Currently I have the privilege of serving on the CSWE Board of Directors as a Baccalaureate Program Representative. I also have served as the NASW-Nevada vice president and BPD’s Annual Conference Chair. Through these experiences I have come to appreciate the many challenges confronting social work education from both within and outside the profession. I also have come to believe that successfully addressing these challenges will require social work organizations to join together in developing creative, mutually beneficial solutions—that simultaneously honor the unique interests of each. As the accrediting body for social work education, I see CSWE’s participation as critical to this process. I would welcome the opportunity to continue my service to the organization as treasurer. Specifically, I would bring my thoughtful, yet optimistic approach to the role, as well as my commitment to work toward bringing together social work's many voices in developing innovative, win-win approaches.
Undergraduate Director Representatives
Charlotte Goodluck, MSW, PhD
Portland State University
It is an honor and a humbling one to be nominated for this position. I am from the Navajo Dine Nation from northern Arizona. I have a MSW from Smith College and a PhD in social work from the University of Denver. My direct practice experiences include working with Native American families and children and other populations.
I am the director of the BSW Program, School of Social Work, Portland State University. I was previously at Northern Arizona University, BSW Program, Flagstaff, Arizona. I have been involved in social work education for over 23 years including administration, accreditation, teaching across the curriculum, service to communities, rural social work, indigenous social work, and research with southwest tribes, ICWA, Native well-being indicators, and strengths perspectives. My research interest includes making social work explicit in sustainability linking to racial disparities and anti-oppression practices.
I am interested in this position because I have the experience in social work and social work education to add a different perspective to critical issues. I have walked in two worlds my entire life. I have learned how to bring the best of our individual strengths to the forefront to make our organizations more meaningful to those who have been on the fringes, are currently underrepresented, and to go beyond the cultural competency model to a 21st century transformational framework. Our question is how can we work as a team toward making the goals and objectives of the CSWE creative and meaningful in social justice related visioning processes, foster ethical and value based direction setting, collaborate with other organizations, and plan for our complex world in uncertain times. I am asking for your vote and support in this leadership position and challenge. Walk in Beauty.
Matthew Theriot, MSSW, PhD
The University of Tennessee
I am immensely grateful for this nomination and eager to serve if elected. I am deeply committed to excellence in social work education at all levels. As the profession moves forward and overcomes the challenges presented by budget shortfalls and shrinking resources, we must always remember those qualities and characteristics that make us strong, including the diversity of CSWE-accredited programs. Our programs are large and small, rural and urban, at public and private universities, newly-accredited, and more veteran. Each program has its own needs yet each contributes in unique and important ways to strengthening social work education. Such differences are critical for advancing undergraduate and graduate social work programs in our mission to educate professionals who are confident and well-prepared to provide effective services to all social work clients.
It would be an honor to represent this diverse constituency as Undergraduate Director Representative on the CSWE Board of Directors. My passion for undergraduate social work started while earning my own BSW degree and I have followed a career path that keeps me tightly connected to undergraduate students and their education. Currently, I am an associate professor and director of the BSSW program at the University of Tennessee. I also serve on the CSWE Commission on Curriculum and Educational Innovation, am a consulting editor with the Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, and a member of BPD committees. Locally, I serve on numerous university committees and several community boards. I received my BSW and MSSW degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and my doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. I believe that my background, education, and my experiences in administration and leadership have prepared me to be an effective member of the Board of Directors and a strong advocate for CSWE’s diverse individual and institutional members.
Undergraduate Faculty Representative
Noe Ramirez, MSW, PhD
University of Texas-Pan American
It is an honor to be nominated to serve on The CSWE Board of Directors as Undergraduate Faculty Representative. In this capacity, as in my entire social work career, I am committed to provide advocacy on behalf of the profession’s constituency by exercising a representative role in the context of the profession’s principles, values, and philosophy. If elected for this position, I will bring to the Board, both, direct practice, and culturally-competent experience with clients in human service organizations and as an academician. Throughout my social work career I have consistently integrated social work principles in my practice with clients, students, colleagues, and the community at-large. From testing our principles and promoting social work values in the field, I have obtained considerable learning on the importance of our undergraduates practicing the integrative method in the profession. This experience has carried over to academia where I emphasize in the delivery of social work courses the importance of students integrating the profession’s principles and values in the field. As an educator I utilize and promote the use of experiential learning perspectives that facilitate the creation of learning environments for students to learn social work practice and for their development throughout their careers. I advocate that students exercise conscientious responsibility as social workers where they practice in multiple settings and their contributions materialize. I stand for educating students on the importance of continuous engagement in professional development while improving services to our clients, participating in civic service activities in their communities, and promoting social and economic justice, respect and tolerance for human diversity.
Graduate Dean Representatives
Ann Rosegrant Alvarez, MA, MSW, PhD
Eastern Michigan University
I am honored to have been nominated for a position on the CSWE Board of Directors, and excited about the potential of this opportunity to contribute to social work education. Having been a social work student, practitioner or educator in Ohio, the Philippines, Louisiana, Michigan, and Hawai‘i; I would bring to this position experience in a variety of settings, across different institutions, cultures, and locations. In these various contexts I have worked extensively with Filipinos, European Americans, African Americans, and Pacific Islanders, including Native Hawaiians. Now at Eastern Michigan University, after 12 years at Wayne State University and four at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, I have experience as a community practitioner, agency administrator, teaching faculty member, macro concentration chair, associate dean, director of distance education, MSW program chair and director of a school of social work.
My writing and teaching have focused on multicultural community practice, the development of critical consciousness through praxis, community-based participatory research, group work and social action, feminist social work history, and social work education (including distance/technology delivery). Within CSWE, I am a member of the Commission for Diversity and Social and Economic Justice, and past member and chair of the Commission (now Council) on the Role and Status of Women in Social Work Education. From 2002-2007, I was one of four Editors of the Journal of Community Practice.
As a Board member, my focus would include the balance between representative governance and direct input from stakeholders—including improving feedback mechanisms and processes—and efforts to clarify and strengthen the relationship between CSWE and social work educators, students and practitioners. I believe strongly in the power of collaborative work, and I hope to serve on the CSWE Board to help develop and define social work education during these challenging and potentially transformative times.
Wynne Korr, PhD
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
I am honored to be nominated to serve on the CSWE Board. Our commitment to social and economic justice and human rights will be challenged as we address the many problems facing us because of the current economic crisis and strained political climate. Our public universities, the primary means of access to higher education for those who experience economic disadvantage, are raising tuition in face of declining state support. Need for human services has increased while public dollars are drying up. Along with its critical role in shaping social work education, CSWE must continue to advocate for social work education in the policy arena.
I have had the privilege of being a social work educator for 30 years, teaching in all degree programs at some point during my service to three institutions, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign where I now serve as dean. My first experience of CSWE was at APM during my 1st year on the faculty. A faculty development institute on pedagogy made me a better professor. My service on the CSWE Women’s Commission gave me the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with visionary leaders to develop initiatives like the annual breakfast and the awards program that are now beloved institutions. Most recently my service on the Commission on Accreditation has shown me how deeply committed social work educators are to our students and the profession and to achieving quality through accreditation. We may disagree on the path, but we all share the commitment to the outcome. My service has deepened my commitment to collaboration with colleagues and service to social work education.
Graduate Faculty Representative
Maria Brave Heart, MSSW, PhD
Columbia University
I served as the American Indian representative to the CSWE Board from1996-1999 and welcome the opportunity to serve again. I was on the faculty at the University of Denver GSSW from 1992-2006 and have been on the Columbia University SSW faculty since January 2007. I have served on the Board of the National Association for Rural Mental Health and the Affilia Journal of Women and Social Work Editorial Board. In my teaching and scholarship, I integrate human rights and social justice with clinical social work practice. My integrated approach to both education and practice culminated in developing the Takini (Survivor) Network to address intergenerational healing from historical trauma among Indigenous Peoples. I conduct historical trauma community education and intervention training across the United States and Canada. I developed and directed three national interdisciplinary historical trauma conferences from 2001-2004, which included content on several massively traumatized populations living in the United States and Canada. Currently, I am a member of the clinical intervention research team at the Hispanic Treatment Program, NYS Psychiatric Institute.
My experience encompasses reservation/rural and urban practice, teaching, and research across the United States and Canada. Recently, my Historical Trauma & Unresolved Grief Intervention (HTUG) was designated as a Tribal Best Practice for Indigenous Peoples, by the First Nations Behavioral Health Association, the Pacific Substance Abuse & Mental Health Collaborating Council, and the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. Currently, I am exploring adaptation of HTUG to Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, Mexican Americans, and Mestizo/Latino immigrants in the United States.
I would bring my diverse practice, intervention research, and teaching leadership in rural and urban western and eastern settings to the board. Having been an associate professor at both a western and now an eastern school, I have a breadth of perspectives for social work education.