News in 2013
Bringing kids in trouble back from the brink
GO LOCAL WORCESTER 07/24/2013
Elissa Bellinger, a Smith College School for Social Work student, is determined to use her degree to help social-service systems, especially the justice system, adopt restorative-justice techniques. Read the article here!
2013 Career Fair for MSW Graduation Students
Over 20 employers attended the 2013 Career Development Fair sponsored by the Lazarus Center for Career Development. Employers seeking to fill full time clinical positions competed to woo Smith students to consider their organizations upon graduation. In addition to the employers, the Fair included a “Networking Nook” hosted by alumni representing a variety of social work roles. Alumni in attendance included: Michael Carter, MSW '08, Health Care and Rehabilitation Services (HCRS) Brattleboro, VT; Sarah Rigney, MSW '09, Behavioral Health Network, Springfield, MA; Linda Puzan, Supervision Certificate, ’06, Univ. of Connecticut, Berkshire & Franklin County Elder Protective Services Program; Andrea Torres, MSW '09, United Services, Inc., Willimantic, CT; Leah Krieger, MSW '11, Treehouse Foundation/Berkshire Children and Families, Easthampton, MA.
Summer Lecture Series 2013
J. Michael Bostwick, M.D.
Friday, July 19th 
Lecture Title:
Sex and Gender in the Olympics and the Real World Annual Conference and E. Diane Davis Memorial Lecture
Individuals with intersex conditions challenge binary definitions of sex and gender. Through two cases -- one an international celebrity, the other a patient who presented in routine clinical practice -- Dr. Bostwick explored challenges facing individuals who fail to fit neatly into either male or female categories, and suggest that such neat delineations are ultimately specious.
Vigil for Restorative Justice in The Wake of the Trayvon Martin Verdict
On Tuesday, July 16, the Smith College community held a Vigil in memory of Trayvon Martin. Short readings and musical interludes were offered as those in attendance mourned the absence of social and racial justice represented by the Martin case. Reverend Matilda Cantwell, who spearheaded the gathering commented, "As social workers, each of you is specially located in this time, and in so many times of upheaval and despair. For each of you in different ways, the tragic death of Trayvon Martin is your time; to feel what you feel without judgment; to acknowledge the unspeakable pain being felt by those intimately involved; and then, in time, to begin to act to bend the moral arc of the part of the universe you inhabit toward justice." The event was co-sponsored by the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life and the School for Social Work Spirituality in Action Program. (A full transcript of Rev. Cantwell's comments can be found here.)
Summer Lecture Series 2013
Charles Swenson, M.D.
Monday, July 15th 
Lecture Title:
DBT Principles in Action: Psychotherapy of Disorders of Severe Emotional Dysregulation
This lecture provided a detailed discussion of the three paradigms, their associated principles, and how they inform the therapist in sessions. Several case examples were used to illustrate the teaching.
On Eve of Retirement, Social Work Dean Lauded 
When she was a new student at the Smith College School for Social Work, Deepa Ranganathan attended an event during which Dean Carolyn Jacobs offered her class some valuable advice. "Focus and keep going and carefully select which battles we were going to fight," Ranganathan recalled during a retirement reception for Jacobs in June.
Summer Lecture Series 2013
Andrea Neumann-Mascis, Ph.D.
Monday, July 1st 
Lecture Title:
A Clinically Meaningful Understanding of People with Disabilities and the Impact of Ableism
This lecture reviewed the evolution of disability as an identity, a community and a field of study. Dr. Neumann-Mascis examined the impact of disability and ableism from a sociopolitical perspective and a psychodynamic perspective and identified the ways in which disability and the impact of ableism can shape clinical themes. She also discussed a dimensional framework for providing informed and meaningful care to this diverse community of people.
Moderator: Michael Funk, Ph.D.
Panelists:
Enroue Halfkenny, LCSW Arden O'Donnell, M.P.H, M.S.W, LICSW Elizabeth Rodriguez-Keyes, Ph.D., LCSW
Monday, June 24th
Lecture Title:
Anti-Racism Work in Clinical Practice
Anti-racism Lecture
This panel brought together a group of Smith College School for Social Work graduates to discuss how they put antiracism work into action in a clinical context.
Richard Davidson, Ph.D.
Monday June 17th
Lecture Title:
Change Your Brain by Transforming Your Mind
This lecture presented an overview of studies conducted in a laboratory on neural changes associated with different forms of meditation, exploring how one can transform the mind through meditation.
John Creswell, Ph.D.
Monday June 10th
Lecture Title:
Mixed Methods Research and Social Work: State-of-the-Art
This lecture presented the basics of mixed methods research for the novice researcher to give the participant a solid introduction to the field of mixed methods research.
Melanie Suchet, Ph.D.
Monday, June 3rd
Lecture Title:
Relational Psychoanalytic Practice:
Subjectivity
and Self-Disclosure
This lecture explored the analyst's subjectivity in relation to self disclosure. Has the pendulum swung to a point where self disclosures are not only permissible but valorized? How does the analyst find the right balance between an open, authentic experience which depends on the use of their subjectivity and a careful, thoughtful approach that does to thrust the analyst's self unnecessarily onto center stage?
Associate Dean Joshua Miller Featured in Insight Journal Summer Lecture Series 2013
When disaster strikes-whether it’s in this country or in places like Sri Lanka, China, Haiti or northern Uganda-the recovery process unfolds differently from one region or culture to another, and healers coming to help must honor these differences if they want to be effective, according to disaster mental health responder Joshua Miller. He has come to recognize that the healing of human minds and spirits plays an essential part in rebuilding and reckoning with loss.
News in 2012
Dr. Pruett Featured in New York Family Magazine
Dr. Marsha Kline Pruett and husband, Dr. Kyle Pruett, recently discussed their new book, "Partnership Parenting, in New York Family magazine:
"Co-parenting is working together as a team. It is not splitting things 50-50, it is not doing everything the same way, at the same time or always together. It is about being in a partnership. The fact that you each do some things better than the other allows you to each have a role that is sort of identifiable. So what the book says is you can learn to accept each other's contribution, appreciate it, value it, and even enjoy it."
Read the article at:
www.newyorkfamily.com/viva-le-difference/
SSW Awarded Snooks Prize
The School for Social Work has been awarded the Snooks Prize from the Center of Clinical Social Work. This award is presented to the graduate school program whose students submitted the largest number of eligible papers in the annual Judith Holm Memorial Award of Excellence in Preparation for Clinical Practice competition. The Snooks Prize is intended to recognize excellence in preparing students for the practice of the profession of clinical social work.
Dr. Mary Hall Honored at Retirement Symposium
On Friday, June 15, Smith College School for Social Work celebrated the retirement of Dr. Mary Hall with a symposium in her honor. Dr. Alan H. Goodman, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dean of Faculty, and Professor of Biological Anthropology at Hampshire College delivered a lecture entitled Race is a Verb: From Race-as-Explanation to the Health Consequences of Race and Racism to commemorate the occasion.
The lecture was followed by a reception for family, friends, faculty, and other guests in the lobby of Wright Hall. Dean Jacobs moderated the procession, while special guests Dr. Jeane Anastas, President of NASW, and Professors Emeritus Roger Miller and Gerry Schamess spoke in acknowledgement of Dr. Hall's accomplishments.
SSW Faculty Receive NASW Honors
Mary Hall, professor of social work, and Joan Lesser, adjunct associate professor of social work, both received honors from the National Association of Social Work (NASW), Massachusetts Chapter. Hall was given an award for Greatest Contribution to Social Work Education while Lesser was honored for Greatest Contribution to Social Work Practice. The social work faculty members will be feted during the association's annual awards celebration on March 29, at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel and Conference Center, along with other award winners. The NASW is the largest organization in the world for professional social workers, with 145,000 members.
News in 2011
Curriculum Day 2011
In late October, members of the Curriculum Committee and the resident Smith SSW faculty met in Northampton for Curriculum Day. After reading student feedback from Smith Speaks, informal conversations and reading all the course evaluations- the committee integrated student voices and themes from feedback to the position paper which influenced the theme of the meeting. Learn more: Curriculum Day Summary (PDF)
Wendy Sherman, MSW '71, for Key White House Post
White House Press Release, July 1, 2011
President Obama recently announced his intention to nominate Smith alumna Wendy R. Sherman, MSW '71, for the position of Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Department of State. Sherman is the vice chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, and is also a member of the Investment Committee of Albright Capital Management.
Teleconference to focus on end-of-life care
Sun Jounal, April 1, 2011
Carolyn Jacobs, dean and Elizabeth Marting Treuhaft professor at Smith College, School for Social Work, will discuss spirituality and end-of-life care at the Hospice Foundation of America’s 18th annual teleconference Wednesday, April 13.
Maxine Summerhill Thompson, MSW '76, promoted at Upstate Medical University
The Post Standard, February 11, 2011
Smith alumna Maxine Summerhill Thompson MSW '76 has been promoted to assistant vice president for diversity and inclusion at Upstate Medical University.
Amy Bloom MSW '78 likens writing short stories to being a ‘cat burglar’
Rancho Sante Fe Review, January 20, 2011
Amy Bloom MSW '78 compares the job of writing short stories, her favorite medium, to that of being a cat burglar, “in and out in a relatively short time...to accomplish something shocking — and lasting — without throwing around the furniture.” Her latest book is “Where the God of Love Hangs Out.”
Adjunct Professor Dora B. Robinson will deliver MLK talk
The Republican, January 5, 2011
Dora B. Robinson, president and chief executive officer of the United Way of the Pioneer Valley and an adjunct professor with the Smith College School for Social Work, will be the keynote speaker at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. observance at Holyoke Community College.
