Associate Professor, Clinical, Education Technology Coordinator, and B.S.W. W.O.W! Coordinator, Fayetta Keys (below), has been selected as one of five inaugural members of the newly-established Wayne State University Academy of Teachers, which was "designed to create and sustain a culture of teaching excellence based on the diffusion and implementation of evidence-driven, inclusive, and student-centered pedagogical and curricular practices across the university." These dedicated faculty members were appointed to the AOT by Provost Whitfield to support the professional development of faculty and instructors and provide an effective means for sharing information, ideas and strategies to promote excellence in teaching and learning. The AOT will assess and promote institutional-, college-, and department-level structures that honor and reward excellence in teaching and learning. The committee will also serve as an advisory group to the provost and provide a conduit for institutional change to support teaching excellence. Read more

Carolyn Dayton is a member of the Wayne State Campus band and will be performing in concert on April 4th.  She plays the french horn. 

Romy Kochan, Founder and current Managing Partner of Gingras Global, Inc., a social enterprise reporting and standard development firm based in Southeast Michigan, spoke with MSW students in the social entrepreneurship class. 

Course instructor, Marijo Upshaw, MSW, MBA, notes that "Charitable giving has changed dramatically in the past 20 years, with an increasing emphasis on strategic and venture philanthropy, as well as the emerging field of impact investing." Students in the social entrepreneurship class are learning about new ways to fund social change ventures. Impact investing is a growing market that is expected to reach $500 billion in investments in the next few years. Impact investors seed, grow and scale promising and innovative impact objectives, activities, and enterprises. Impact investors have a dual focus for the capital they deploy. One, they seek financial returns at or below competitive market rates. Two, equally if not more important, they look to produce real social impact through their investments. The financial instruments that impact investors use include credit enhancement, guarantees, debt, cash deposits, equity, hybrid instruments, loans; microcredit, mortgages, real assets, social impact bonds (SIBs) and working capital lines of credit. Romy spoke with the class about impact investment funds that her firm has started in the metropolitan Detroit area. The funds pool investments by accredited investors who are interested in furthering the mission of area social enterprises. For example, local impact investments have helped provide capital to Artesian Farms, a local grower of organic produce that is creating jobs for disadvantaged youth in Detroit.

SWAN doctoral student, Caitlin Cassady, won 3^rd place at the March 6^th Graduate Research Symposium for her abstract entitled "Toward an Understanding of Local Arab American Views on Aging." The analysis showed the complexity in partcipants' communication about aging and culture and the need for a deeper understanding of diverse views on aging that may not easily conform to current dominant constructs.

Congratulations to Tina Ryznar (below) who passed her dissertation defense entitled "Understanding Interdisciplinary Collaboration Within Zero to Three Safe Babies Court Teams"!

The Wayne State School of Social Work maintained its Best Graduate Program ranking of #34 (out of 220) in the recent US News & World Report. This places us well within the top 20% of all programs nationally.  View the Best Graduate Programs report in its entirety here.