Faculty & Research

As a young student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Margaret Ashmore was inspired by President Jimmy Carter’s dedication to service and social programs. A test at the university’s career center confirmed her desire to serve others, leading to a degree in social work. At UNCG, Ashmore was mentored by her professor, Dr. Patricia Spakes. “It was Dr. Spakes and another beloved professor, Jerry Finn, who influenced and encouraged me to continue my education.”

The College of Social Work Dean Search Committee is chaired by Dr. Don Farr, Dean, Dedman College of Hospitality at Florida State University.  SP&A Executive Search (formerly known as Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates), an executive search firm specializing in and exclusively dedicated to serving the higher education and non-profit sections has been retained to lead the committee through the search.

Dr. Bruce Thyer recently published a book in 2020 with his co-editors Dr. Charles Figley and Dr. Jeffrey Yarvis. The book Combat Social Work: Applying the Lessons of War to the Realities of Human Services, published by Oxford University Press, draws attention to the many unsung social work heroes exposed to active combat.

Developed in the early 2000s, Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) was developed as a distinct therapeutic technique for the treatment of traumatic stress. The technique is based on the principles of testimony therapy, according to the American Journal of Psychotherapy, and invites people to tell their stories or experiences, including traumatic events, in which the specific political context of the traumatic events is emphasized.

On November 2, 2022, Florida State University held a memorial service to remember the fourth anniversary of the 2018 shooting at a Tallahassee yoga studio that took the lives of FSU student Maura Binkley and FSU professor Dr. Nancy Van Vessem and injured five others.

The event was organized through the Maura’s Voice Research Fund, established in 2019 by Jeff and Margaret Binkley, Maura’s parents, to focus on researching and responding to the complex causes and effects of gun violence.

A team of Florida State University researchers has received a $150,000 grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to study the impact of client violence on child protective service workers in Florida.

A $1.3 million grant will fund a project in the Florida State University College of Social Work that aims to combat the opioid epidemic across eight southeastern states.

The two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will go to the Center for the Study and Promotion of Communities, Families and Children (CFC Center). It will target 168 rural counties across Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

As Hurricane Ian devastated Florida last month, many Floridians were reminded of similar damage caused by Hurricanes Maria (2017) and Hurricane Michael (2018). A study by Florida State faculty members Dr. Amy L. Ai and Dr. Arthur A. Raney, along with Dr. Hoa B. Appel (University of Washington), recently published in Natural Disaster Research, examined the traumatic impact of those hurricanes on survivors living in Florida.

Dr. Taylor Dowdy-Hazlett, a recent FSU College of Social Work graduate joins the faculty of the University of Kentucky College of Social Work as an assistant professor.  Taylor’s dissertation focused on children and families involved in the foster care system, titled  “Latent Profiles of Foster Parents and their Association with Intent to Disrupt Placement and Turnover,” working with her major professor Dr. Shamra Boel-Studt.

A recent study from Florida State University examined how the cumulative experience of violence can impact virally stable people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).