A promising young alum has been lost to COVID-19. Here is Dean Linda Burton's message to the school community on the loss of Sarah Roncskevitz (BA '17 MSW '19).
June 1, 2020
May 29, 2020
Othering and Belonging Institute
Denise Herd, professor at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health and associate director of the Othering and Belonging Institute, wrote a op-ed "On George Floyd and the Struggle to Belong" that highlights the work of assistant professor Erin Kerrison and affiliated professor Osagie Obasogie.
May 19, 2020
Excellence in Social Work Practice Award
Tara Montgomery
Presented to a student who best exemplifies excellence in social work practice each year. Students are nominated by field faculty and field placement site supervisors, who select the student whose graduate field education performance exemplifies the highest standards of competence, creativity, and commitment.
May 18, 2020
Berkeley News
Join us for a discussion of the role of digital technology and telehealth amidst the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of public health, medicine, and mental health. Panelists will discuss how we can leverage technology to reach people in need during social distancing as well as the challenges of reaching low-resourced communities with lower digital literacy.
May 16, 2020
We didn’t start this year thinking that we would be operating the School of Social Welfare out of our living rooms. But with all of California sheltering in place this spring, the COVID-19 crisis has upended the school year. Despite the disruptions and the many uncertainties, the upheaval of this school year has built our resourcefulness and reminded us of our strengths.
I felt a powerful calling to Berkeley's School of Social Welfare the first time I entered Haviland Hall. Berkeley's historic commitment to social justice was in the air and punctuated the vibrancy of the School's mission, programs, faculty, students, staff, and alum. I knew almost instantly that becoming the Dean of the School of Social Welfare was the opportunity I had been waiting for. After decades of studying the impact of poverty and inequality on the lives of America's most marginalized families, including the policies that create and perpetuate disadvantage in their lives, finally, here I was with a golden opportunity to contribute to the training of "first responders" who address the needs of families like those I had come to know and care about in my research.
May 15, 2020
Experiences of sexuality and reproductive health are both deeply personal and nearly universal; Associate Professor Anu Manchikanti Gómez’s work explores the intersection between individual decisions, medical systems, and social structures.
May 14, 2020
Since joining the School of Social Welfare last fall, Dean Linda Burton has been working diligently to engage with her new community and collaborate with elected public officials throughout California.
May 13, 2020
Esmeralda Cortez Rosales wants to make young women aware of their political power. “If women are half of the population, we should be extremely close to — if not 50% of — all elected officials across the country.” Her path to activism started through a school-based program, IGNITE, which she now helps lead.
May 10, 2020
Robert Ayasse is retiring at the end of the semester after nearly 20 years as field consultant and lecturer and 10 years as co-chair of the Pupil Personnel Services Credential (PPSC) program for work as a school social worker in California K-12 public schools.
May 6, 2020
KPFA
Doctoral student Katie Savin speaks about the experiences of people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Savin's comments start at the 34-minue mark; listen at https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=333519.
April 30, 2020
Time
South Korea's response to COVID-19 has been globally recognized as a model for effective containment of the virus balanced with respect for civil liberties. Alum Park Neunghoo (PhD '98), South Korea's Minister of Health and Welfare, answers questions about his country's approach and what lies ahead.
April 28, 2020
KQED
MSW student Daniela Medina was one of several members of the Underground Scholars interviewed by KQED on their experiences during the shelter in place.
Berkeley News
Susan Stone, a professor and associate dean in the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare, and Joyce Dorado, a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF-Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, discuss trauma-informed approaches to COVID-19 as part of the "Berkeley Conversations" series.
Health Affairs
This blog post by Associate Professor Emmeline Chaung and UCLA colleagues outlines how California's Whole Person Care program helped counties respond to COVID-19.
WIRED
As incidents of domestic violence continue to rise as people shelter in place during the pandemic, technology is both a lifeline to the outside world and a means of control and surveillance for abusers. Doctoral candidate Laura Brignone is one of several experts interviewed in this examination of the double-edged role of technology.
KPFA
Erin Kerrison speaks about the unequal impact of COVID-19 on disproportionately black neighborhoods in the East Bay. Her comments start at the 1:08 mark.
April 24, 2020
Berkeley News
"There are various reasons COVID-19 is killing black people at six times the rate of white people, including a lack of access to health care, and poor environmental conditions in black communities. But one largely unexamined contributor to the disparity, according to a panel of UC Berkeley experts, is the trauma and stress caused by police violence in those communities, and the physical toll of that violence
April 23, 2020
More than 50 Berkeley Social Welfare alumni and current students met on Wednesday, April 22 to discuss challenges and explore solutions to the impacts of COVID-19.
Director of Field Education Greg Merrill organized these sessions as a way for practicing social work professionals to connect with each other and share their experiences and best practices as social workers in the middle of a pandemic. The session consisted of a short overview followed by breakout sessions where participants were grouped with others in their area of practice (child welfare, aging, etc.)
April 21, 2020
KQED
In a KQED Perspective, MSW student Shatesha Morris calls attention to the dangerous isolation of youth in California's juvenile detention facilities, especially during the COVID-19.