Brown School featured prominently at SSWR Conference

Brown School faculty members, staff and students led more than 50 research presentations during the 20th annual conference of the Society for Social Work and Research, and several were honored for their work.

The conference was held in Washington, D.C., with the theme “Grand Challenges for Social Work: Setting a Research Agenda for the Future.” Brown School faculty members participated in invited symposia, poster presentations and a papers session.

Dean Edward F. Lawlor participated in the symposium, “Grand Challenges for Social Work: Examples of Campus Compacts.” He outlined the ways the Brown School has adopted the vision and framework of the National Association of Social Work’s ten Grand Challenges.

Other highlights included:

• Professors Sean Joe and Michael Sherraden participated in the Policy Forum: 2016 Children Policies to Address the Grand Challenges of Poverty and Unequal Social Mobility.
• Professor Mark Rank received the 2016 SSWR Book Award for Best Scholarly Book Published for Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes. The Book Award recognizes outstanding social work contributions that advance knowledge with direct applications to practice, policy, and the resolution of social problems.
• Doctoral candidate Donny Gerke received a 2016 SSWR Doctoral Fellows Award. The award recognizes and supports doctoral students whose proposed dissertation research reflects innovative ideas and rigorous methodologies related to social work research, policy, or practice. The recipients, considered exemplars of excellence in doctoral level social work research, receive a $3,000 award for expenses related to completing their dissertations.