Faculty & Research

Dr. Michael Killian, an associate professor at the College of Social Work, was inducted into the 2024 Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) fellows class.

Drs. Melissa Radey and Shamra Boel-Studt recently published two articles from a study funded by the Florida Institute for Child Welfare (FICW) aimed to provide insights into maternity group homes and their services to young mothers and their families.

FSU College of Social Work affiliates participated in the 2024 Society for Social Work and Reserach Conference on January 10-14, 2024, in Washington, DC. Faculty and doctoral students, along with affiliates from the Florida Institute for Child Welfare, presented at a total of 29 presentations and sessions at the conference.

This year, Dr. Lisa Schelbe, an associate professor and associate director of Academic Affairs at the FSU College of Social Work, published her book Some Type of Way: Aging Out of Foster Care.

The book seeks to answer several questions to improve outcomes for youth aging out of foster care and the child welfare system, including:

November 2, 2023, marked five years since the hate crime shooting at a Tallahassee yoga studio that took the lives of then-FSU student Maura Binkley and FSU College of Medicine professor Dr. Nancy Van Vessem.  Four other women were wounded. The victims were targeted for no other reason than being women.

In a recent report published by The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC), researchers shed light on the state of corporal punishment in U.S. public schools and its relationship to trauma-informed education policies.

Dean David W. Springer is excited to announce four administrative leadership promotions within the FSU College of Social Work. 

"Individually, these leaders and change-makers within our college will make a profound impact on our community through collaboratively sharing their strengths and talents with faculty, staff, students and alumni," said Dean Springer, sharing his vision for this team. "Collectively, I know they will serve a critical role in amplifying our transformational work to change lives."

Youth in foster care often face higher exposure to traumatic events and are less likely to receive the necessary services to address the resulting trauma-related symptoms. This discrepancy leads to a range of mental health challenges that, if left untreated, can manifest into more complex issues, such as substance misuse and delinquency.

The Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children (CFC Center) at the FSU College of Social Work is committed to changing this narrative.

Researchers at Florida State University recently published a study in the Southern Communication Journal evaluating the impact of FSU’s Student Resilience Project on first-year college students.  

Fully launched in 2018, FSU developed the Student Resilience Project to provide first-year students with information on self-help coping skills and access to campus health and academic support resources to improve their acclimation to college.

This year, Dr. Kristy Anderson, an assistant professor at the College of Social Work, received a KL2 Mentoring Career Development Award. The National Institutes of Health funds the award to assist emerging research faculty in establishing their career in patient-oriented research. The award combines didactic training, mentoring and exposure to multidisciplinary research and ongoing evaluation.