Doctoral Program

For the first two decades of her career, alumna Dr. Julie Buckey worked as a social worker at various levels. Receiving her MSW (1996) from the FSU College of Social Work’s Part-Time Program in Jacksonville, Julie worked in both supervisory and administrative roles in child welfare, health and mental health. It was not until she returned to the College in 1999 for her doctoral degree and began her dissertation that her focus would change, setting the course for the next stage of her life’s work.

“It’s time to stop being politely angry,” said Leymah Gbowee, the Liberian social worker and peace activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. Leymah spent a weekend at Florida State this month, helping students and teachers learn how to harness their personal difficulties and anger at injustice into positive energy towards change.

Leah Cheatham will be among the 15 doctoral students nationwide to receive the Doris Duke Fellowship for the Promotion of Child Well-Being. Through an annual national competition these students were selected to be the, “new generation of leaders interested in and capable of creating practice and policy initiatives that will enhance child development and improve the nation’s ability to prevent all forms of child maltreatment.”

Each year The Graduate School at Florida State recognizes only six special graduate students across campus with the Graduate Student Research and Creativity Award for their exemplary research and creative endeavors.  Two students are selected from three areas: natural and physical sciences (including science, technology, engineering and math); social and behavioral sciences; and, humanities a

Through her work with the FSU MeasureUp program, social work doctoral candidate Annelise Mennicke along with Principle Investigator (PI) Rick Howell and fellow co-PI Kori Pruett received a $5,000 Avon Campus Grant to Activate Bystanders to Reduce Sexual Assault, Dating Abuse and Stalking from the Avon Foundation for Women through its Speak Out Against Domestic Violence initiative.

The Florida State University College of Social Work was well represented at the 2015 Society for Social Work and Research annual conference in January in New Orleans, Louisiana. The College hosted a reception at the Galvez Restaurant on Friday, January 16^th for alumni and friends in the French Quarter and had a booth in the conference exhibit hall. Some of the highlights of the SSWR conference for the College included the recognition of Drs. Tomi Gomory and Jeffrey Lacasse along with Ph.D.

This year, doctoral candidate Leah Cheatham received a second year of funding as a part of her Doris Duke Fellowship for the Promotion of Child Well-Being. The fellowship is awarded annually to select doctoral students across the country that are to become the next generation of leaders within the field of child welfare.

Dr. Annelise Mennicke, a recent graduate of the doctoral program of the FSU College of Social Work, was awarded the 2015 student award for leadership and service from the Group of the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE) for her work in sexual violence prevention on FSU’s campus.

I am both thrilled and honored to be joining the faculty at the University of Alabama School of Social Work. I was drawn to the University of Alabama because of my interests in working within a public university with strong community ties, excellent support for research, and a strong commitment to students. The warm reception from faculty, staff, and students during my visit to Tuscaloosa sealed the deal.

University of Connecticut (UConn) was my top choice because of the School of Social Work faculty’s history of social activism and community-engaged research. I can’t wait to build relationships with faculty and students across the UConn campus and in the greater Hartford community as we all work to help clients recognize the strength of their own voice, empower themselves as agents, and envision a different way forward for themselves and their families.