Alumni & Friends

On the morning of May 3, 2019, the FSU College of Social Work celebrated its Spring Class of 2019 graduates at the annual spring graduation reception in the Oglesby Union Ballrooms. The event welcomed 49 BSW and 58 MSW graduates and their guests for a special ceremony, which included Keynote Speaker Jeff Binkley and Student Speaker Kathryn Casello. Dean Jim Clark presided over the affair, calling forth program directors to announce winners of the College’s annual awards including:

As a child during the 1950s and 1960s, Vera Gorman Gray witnessed first-hand the strong wave of social and political change including the civil rights movement, peace movement, and women’s rights movement. Her family watched it all live on television as they sat down to their evening meal each night. Her lessons on being an active citizen began early. Her parents discussed the issues openly with Vera and her two siblings.

At the annual Social Work Month Celebration, National Association of Social Workers Florida (NASW-FL) Big Bend Unit celebrated this year’s leaders in the region. Among these honored social workers were NASW-FL President and FSU College of Social Work faculty member Carol Edwards, BSW student Kathryn Casello and FSU College of Social Work MSW Alumni Christine Didion.

Florida State University’s Student Resilience Project, a unique online tool to help students improve mental health and reduce stress, has been selected to receive a national award from the American Association of University Administrators.

Jessica Pryce, the director of the Florida Institute for Child Welfare at Florida State University, has been appointed to the advisory board of the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute. 

The board is a nationally representative panel for expert consultation that guides the development and effectiveness of child welfare professionals. Board members will serve through September 2023 and meet three times a year. 

The Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Foundation along with the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Big Bend Chapter celebrated National Philanthropy Day on Thursday, February 22nd at the FSU University Club.

Each year, Philanthropy Day pays tribute to the generous contributions philanthropists and those active in the charitable sector have made in the Big Bend area and their communities.

This year, the National Association of Social Worker’s (NASW) theme for Social Work Month (March 2019) is “Elevate Social Work.” NASW explains that Social Work Month is an opportunity for social workers around the nation and world, along with their supporters, to educate the public about the invaluable contributions of the profession.

My friend and fellow MSW Student Savannah Pierce was at a doctor’s appointment when her nurse started talking about her family in Bay County lost everything during Hurricane Michael and were feeling the cold now that the temperature was dropping in the area. 

She texted me about it and we realized we had not even considered how the winter weather would affect those impacted by the storm that hit the Gulf Coast in October 2018. We decided to do something about it. 

Poverty may be the most troubling and complex social problems we face. According to the World Bank, more than 768.5 billion people were experiencing poverty around the world in 2017. Despite being one of the richest countries in the world, the United States is home to around 40 million people in poverty. 

The Florida State University College of Social Work will host a daylong conference that examines the challenges of poverty and ways that they can be addressed.

The National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision at Mississippi State University named Sylvia Stinson-Perez as the new director of the Older Individuals who are Blind Technical Assistance Center.

Stinson-Perez has more than 20 years of experience in the field of vision rehabilitation and five years in higher education. She received her MSW (1993) and BSW (1991) along with a Master's degree (2010) in education witha specialization on visual disabilities at Florida State University. She assumes her new leadership role Monday, Jan. 7.