Faculty & Research

Speech Recognition in Education: The Powers and Perils

As education researchers focused on children’s language and reading, concepts like “equity” and “disparity” are not new to us. In fact, we obsess about them. 

We analyze data to understand and monitor. We design interventions to change them. We labor (sometimes painfully) to better explain the forces that contribute to inequity in schools so that educators, parents, and policymakers can use it to improve outcomes for all students. 

Welcome New Faculty Member Tracy McDade

Moving to South Florida from New York in high school in the 1980s meant Tracy McDade witnessed first-hand the influx of Cuban refugees coming to Florida. Volunteering with various organizations in the South Florida community, McDade heard accounts from these refugees of oppression, poverty and injustice. This experience affirmed her desire to improve the lives of marginalized individuals, families and whole communities.

Welcome New Faculty Member Brenda Legaspi

“I love seeing students take their classroom learning and apply it in the real world,” said Brenda Legaspi, a new social work faculty member at the College of Social Work (FSUCSW). Legaspi joins the college as an assistant teaching professor focused on working with distance learning students in the Online MSW Program. “My primary interest has been field education, the signature pedagogy of the social work profession.”

FSU Multidisciplinary Team Receives NIH Grant to Study Medication Adherence in Child Organ Transplants

A team from Florida State University has received more than $400,000 from the National Institutes of Health to investigate how closely children who receive a heart, liver or kidney transplant adhere to medication regimens post-surgery.

Michael Killian, an assistant professor at the FSU College of Social Work, was awarded the two-year grant to explore pediatric patient medication adherence and test what factors might predict specific patient trajectories. The team believes this could improve accuracy in the prediction of post-transplant health outcomes.

Faculty Member Leads NASW-FL to Offer Webinars to Connect with Students

As the COVID-19 pandemic gained a foothold in the US and colleges and universities were moving online, Carol Campbell Edwards, an assistant teaching professor at the FSU College of Social Work, was inspired to develop a Spring 2020 webinar series that would promote virtual engagement for social work students who were suddenly disconnected and isolated.

Faculty Member Receives Community Engaged Teaching Award

Dr. Shalay Jackson has made it her mission to engage her students in the content and courses she teaches that later translates to competence in the social work field. This approach is especially important for courses like her Social Work Practice with Communities and Organizations course (SOW4360) as excitement and enthusiasm for community engagement is imperative for immersion and appreciation of the coursework.

CFC Center Receives SAMHSA Grant to Create Substance Use Disorder Curriculum 

A team from Florida State University’s College of Social Work has received a $200,000 grant to develop a new evidence-based curriculum related to substance use disorders. 

The FSU Center for the Study and Promotion of Communities, Families, and Children (CFC Center) based at the Florida State University College of Social Work received a 2020 Expansion of Practitioner Education grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).