Faculty Research

School of Social Work

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Faculty Areas of Specialty

Kim Anderson, Ph.D., MSSW, LCSW

Professor
Phone: 407-823-5201
  • Life Trajectories of Children Exposed to Domestic Violence across the Lifespan
  • Economic and Health Inequity in Communities of Concentrated Disadvantage
  • Methodologies: Community-Based Participatory Research, Mixed Methods, Qualitative (Grounded Theory, Narrative, Thematic Analysis)

Bethany Backes, Ph.D., MSW, MPH

Associate Professor
  • Violence Against Women
  • Multidisciplinary responses to victims
  • Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence
  • Stalking
  • Sexual Violence
  • Victim Help-Seeking
  • Program evaluation

Susanny Beltran, Ph.D., MSW

Assistant Professor, Center Co-Director
Phone: 407-823-4662
  • End-of-life care
  • Health literacy and health promotion
  • Health care disparities among racial/ethnic minority older adults
  • Qualitative research
  • Gerontology education

Melissa Bermudez, MSW, LCSW, LICSW

Instructor, Online MSW
Phone: 407-823-4655
  • Intimate Partner and Power-Based Violence / Trauma
  • Military personnel and Veterans
  • Culturally inclusive care and services

Kevin Brown, Ph.D.

Lecturer
Phone: 407-823-5621
  • child welfare
  • Family Preservation
  • Evidence-based Practice

Reshawna Chapple, Ph.D., MSW, LCSW

Associate Professor
  • Critical Deaf Studies
  • Critical Race Feminism and Intersectionality
  • Culturally Responsive Mental Health Treatment and Access to Services
  • Intimate Partner Violence and Trauma Recovery
  • Qualitative Methods
  • Telemental Health
  • Informed Care

Jill Davis, LCSW, MSW

Instructor
Phone: 407-823-1177
  • Childhood Sexual Abuse
  • Play Therapy
  • Licensure Exam Prep

Christine Ferretti, MSW, LCSW

Assistant Director Online MSW, Associate Instructor
Phone: 407-823-4987
  • Juvenile Sex offender population
  • At Risk Youth

Denise Gammonley, Ph.D., LCSW

Professor
Phone: 407-823-2215
  • Elder care workforce
  • Person-centered care
  • Disability, aging & technology
  • Global social work
  • Scholarship of teaching and learning

Kimberley Gryglewicz, Ph.D., MSW

Associate Professor, Center Co-Director
Phone: 407-823-2954
  • Suicide prevention
  • Health and mental health
  • Family engagement & caregiving issues
  • Program implementation and evaluation
  • Violence Prevention
  • Caregiver Health/Well-Being
  • Grief and Bereavement
  • Community-based participatory research

Shelley Hall, MSW

Instructor
Phone: 407-823-3056
  • Clinical practice in a hospital with neonatal families and maternal/child mental health issues
  • Adoption
  • Foster Care

Robin Kohn, MSW, LCSW

B.S.W. Program Director, Senior Instructor
Phone: 407-823-2967
  • Grief and Bereavement
  • End-of-life care
  • Varying Abilities & Disabilities (primarily mobility & neurological disorders)
  • Practice Health

Shawn Lawrence, Ph.D., LCSW

Professor
Phone: 407-823-3112
  • Obesity and Stigma
  • Substance Abuse
  • Student learning environments and outcomes

Hsiu-Fen Lin, Ph.D., MSW

Assistant Professor
  • Prevention of Intimate Partner Homicide
  • Prevention and Intervention for Interpersonal Violence
  • Economic Empowerment for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence
  • The Impact of Domestic violence on Mental Health and Financial Well-being
  • Screening and Assessment for Immigrant and non-English speaking populations
  • International Social Work

Shuang Lu, Ph.D., MSW

Assistant Professor
Phone: 407-823-0490
  • Youth mental health and resilience
  • Migration/immigration
  • Community-based psychosocial intervention
  • Mindfulness
  • Social service capacity building

Shellene Mazany, LCSW, MSW

MSW Program Director, Senior Instructor
Phone: 407-823-1089
  • Mental Health and Addictions
  • Children
  • Youth and Families
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Assessment and Treatment Planning
  • Clinical Supervision
  • Online Education and Technology

Maxine McGregor, LMSW, MSW, MS

Associate Instructor
Phone: 407-823-3037
  • child welfare
  • domestic violence
  • Online Education

Olga Molina, DSW, MSW, LCSW

Associate Professor
Phone: 407-823-6793
  • Divorce
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Groupwork

Julia O’Connor, Ph.D., MSW, MPH

Assistant Professor
Phone: 407-823-3137
  • Violence Against Women
  • Primary Prevention
  • Campus Sexual Violence
  • Perpetration
  • Evaluation Research
  • International Social Work
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Reproductive Health

Estelli Ramos, MSW, MDiv

Associate Instructor
Phone: 407-823-3161
  • LGBTQ
  • Diversity
  • Macro-Practice
  • Spirituality
  • Latino Individuals and Groups

Iradly Roche, MSW

Associate Instructor
Phone: 407-823-1068
  • Alternative School Social Work for Exceptional Student Education
  • Clinical Social Work for Residential and Academic program working with teen parents

Julie Steen, Ph.D., MSW

Associate Professor
Phone: 407-823-6452
  • Child welfare organizations
  • Child Welfare Policy
  • Human Rights Education

Kenan Sualp, Ph.D., MSW

Assistant Professor
Phone: 407-823-1324
  • Environmental Risk Factors for Mental Health and Access to Care
  • Health and mental health
  • Immigration
  • Global social work
  • Program implementation and evaluation
  • Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
  • Applied Statistics and Data visualization strategies

Matthew Theriot, Ph.D., MSSW

Director, Professor
Phone: 407-823-2114
  • Juvenile Violence
  • School Security
  • Delinquency

Josette vonBirgelen, MSW

Instructor
Phone: 407-823-3283
  • Field Education
  • Child trauma focusing on sexual abuse and family reunification
  • Supervisor role within Field education

Xiaochuan (Sharon) Wang, Ph.D., MSW

Assistant Professor
Phone: 407-823-3705
  • Health And Mental Health Care Access, Utilization, and Quality
  • Nursing Home Quality and Workforce Capacity
  • Culturally sensitive care for racial and ethnic minority older adults

James Whitworth, Ph.D., LCSW

Associate Professor
Phone: 407-823-6136
  • Military members and veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Assessment and treatment of trauma responses
  • Military social work education programs
  • Alternative treatments for PTSD
  • Service Dogs for PTSD
  • Equine Therapy for PTSD

Asli Cennet Yalim, Ph.D., MSW

Assistant Professor
Phone: 407-823-4660
  • Refugee mental health and psychosocial wellbeing
  • Syrian refugees
  • Forced migration in the Middle East
  • Use of mental health services among refugee and immigrant populations
  • Community-based participatory research
  • Culturally competent practice
  • Resilience and empowerment
  • Refugee Women

Current Grants

Social Work

Internalizing the Classroom: Using the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a Framework for Addressing Global Issues

  • PI: Asli Cennet Yalim
  • Amount: $10,000 | Timeframe: 01/01/2024 - 06/01/2027
    Funding Type: Extramural Research
    Funding Agency: Council on Social Work Education
    Social Work

    Youth Who Die by Suicide in the Child Welfare System: Improving Suicide Prevention Standards and Efforts for High-Risk Youth

  • PI: Maxine McGregor
  • Amount: $50,000 | Timeframe: 10/01/2023 - 09/01/2024
    Funding Type: Extramural Research
    Funding Agency: Florida Institute for Child Welfare
    KinesiologySocial Work

    Investigators from Novices, a Transdisciplinary Research Education Program to Increase Diversity (INTREPID) in Aging Research

  • PI: Nicole Dawson
  • PI: Susanny Beltran
  • PI: Denise Gammonley
  • PI: Jeffrey Stout
  • Amount: $1,855,813 | Timeframe: 05/01/2023 - 01/01/2028
    Funding Type: Extramural Research
    Funding Agency: National Institute on Aging, NIA
    Social Work

    Adapting the Advance Dementia Prognostic Tool for high-Medicaid Nursing Homes (ADePT-NH)

  • PI: Susanny Beltran
  • Amount: $98,883 | Timeframe: 03/01/2023 - 02/01/2025
    Funding Type: Extramural Research
    Funding Agency: Florida Department of Health
    Social Work

    Nurse Education Practice Quality Retention Simulation Education Training/Public Health Simulation-Infused Program (PHSIP)

  • PI: Desiree Diaz - College of Nursing
  • Co-PI: Reshawna Chapple
  • Amount: $495,678 | Timeframe: 09/02/2022 - 08/31/2024
    Funding Type: Extramural Research
    Funding Agency: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
    Social Work

    Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Equity in Health and Functioning for Adults with Physical, Cognitive, Sensory and Developmental Disabilities from Marginalized Communities

  • PI: Reshawna Chapple
  • Amount: $367,811 | Timeframe: 09/01/2022 - 08/31/2027
    Funding Type: Extramural Research
    Funding Agency: Regents of the University of Michigan, The
    Social Work

    RF: Expanding Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Services to Victims of Sexual Assault

  • PI: Bethany Backes
  • Amount: $131,496 | Timeframe: 05/23/2022 - 09/30/2024
    Funding Type: Foundation/Industry
    Funding Agency: International Association of Forensic Nurses, Inc.
    Social Work

    CA-LINC: A Culturally Adapted Care Coordination Suicide Detection and Intervention Model for Black Youth

  • PI: Kimberley Gryglewicz
  • Amount: $85,750 | Timeframe: 04/01/2022 - 03/31/2025
    Funding Type: Extramural Research
    Funding Agency: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
    Physical TherapySocial Work

    Developing a Resilient Health Care Work Force: A UCF Model for Academic Health Science Centers

  • PI: Magdalena Pasarica - College of Medicine
  • Co-PI: Laurie Neely
  • Co-PI: Patrick Pabian
  • Co-PI: Asli Cennet Yalim
  • Amount: $1,496,127 | Timeframe: 01/01/2022 - 12/31/2024
    Funding Type: Extramural Research
    Funding Agency: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
    Social Work

    Florida Pathways to Awareness, Support, and Services (FPASS)

  • PI: Kimberley Gryglewicz
  • Amount: $125,000 | Timeframe: 09/30/2021 - 09/29/2026
    Funding Type: Extramural Research
    Funding Agency: Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
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