The FSU College of Social Work is introducing a new role to the college – poet-in-residence. Dean David Springer has assigned this role to Dr. Nicholas Mazza, emeritus dean and professor.

In this voluntary role, Dr. Mazza will facilitate opportunities with the FSU CSW community to benefit from the arts, particularly the written word, to enhance social work education and practice.

“In literature, you study the human condition. In social work, you do something about it,” he stated in a 2017 article celebrating his Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Poetry Therapy.

As poet-in-residence, Dr. Mazza will expand on his already rich legacy at the College of Social Work, encouraging the arts as a therapeutic modality and tool. Currently, he is facilitating dynamic opportunities for the College of Social Work and surrounding communities to benefit from the arts in 2024.

In 2012, he helped found the Arts & Athletics Program to foster positive youth development in local middle school-aged youths. This year, Arts & Athletics facilitated an eight-week collaborative workshop with Hope at Hand and its director, Steffani Fletcher, utilizing poetry and other art forms to explore concepts like self-worth, resilience, courage, stress management, and effective communication.

Dr. Mazza also hosted a poetry therapy workshop in April 2024 at The Kearney Center, which supports people in Tallahassee, Florida, experiencing homelessness to empower healing and growth. The workshop emerged from a group called the “First 12,” established by Sue Semrau, former FSU women’s basketball coach, to inform and educate people in Tallahassee about homelessness.

This semester, he is partnering with Associate Professor Tomi Gomory on a Poetry Therapy class. Dr. Mazza is also currently working with a Ukrainian colleague to use poetry therapy in Ukraine to support citizens in coping with and processing the atrocities of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. “I have no doubt about the global importance of the arts in social work education and practice at the micro, mezzo and macro levels,” said Dr. Mazza.

He added, “I am excited to return to the College of Social Work with this new role. Although I retired from college in 2015, I have continued to play an active role in advancing poetry therapy on local, national, and international levels. It is important to recognize that social work is an art that helps social workers recognize the unique history, strengths, and culture of clients and communities. The arts offer the means to reach and validate clients by allowing them to tell their stories in various ways."