NASW Foundation Announces 2002-2003 Award Recipients

Jane B. Aron Doctoral Fellowship

Deneece Ferrales. Ms. Ferrales is a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work. She earned a MSW from Worden School of Service, Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas in 1988 and a bachelor of arts degree from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas in 1986. Ms. Ferrales is an advanced clinical practitioner (Texas) and a Licensed Master Social Worker (Texas). She is an assistant professor at our Lady of the Lake University, Worden School of Social Service, and provides consultation and field instruction for community agencies. She has taught many courses as an assistant professor, instructor, guest lecturer, and adjunct faculty/field instructor at Our Lady of the Lake University, Southwest Texas State University and Southwestern University. The title of her doctoral dissertation is The Development of HIV/AIDS Policy: An International Policy Analysis. Her anticipated date of completion is December 2003.

Eileen Blackey Doctoral Fellowship

Silvia Domínguez. Ms. Domínguez is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology and Social Work Doctoral Program at Boston University in Massachusetts. She earned a master of arts degree in social work, specializing in forensic psychiatric social work from the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work in 1985 and a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and sociology from Boston College in 1983. Since receiving her MSW degree in 1985, Ms. Domínguez has worked in the areas of violence, welfare reform, urban program development, alcohol and substance abuse interventions, HIV intervention and treatment, behavioral health care, and prison mental health care. Much of her professional work has involved immigrant populations and communities of color. She has taught a number of courses as adjunct professor, teaching assistant, and guest lecturer at Boston University and Smith College School for Social Work in Northampton, Massachusetts. The title of her doctoral dissertation is The Role of Social Networks and Social Services in Shaping the Mobility Prospects of Latin-American Women Living in Public Housing. Her anticipated date of completion is May 2003.

Verne LaMarr Lyons Scholarship

Mary F. Williams. Ms. Williams is a second-year MSW student enrolled part-time in the School of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond. She graduated from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology. She has worked for five years as a Mental Health Case Manager at District 19 Community Services Board in rural Southside, Virginia. In addition to providing clinical case management services, she is a certified medication aide and a certified pre-screener who provides crisis intervention services. As an African-American woman, she is committed to working to improve the plight of African-Americans who suffer from mental illness and to educate those who are directly and indirectly affected by their disease. Her goals for the future include becoming a licensed clinical social worker, opening a private practice in a rural area, and training future human services workers by becoming an adjunct faculty member at a local college or university.

Consuelo W. Gosnell Memorial MSW Scholarships

Olivia Arrieta. Ms. Arrieta is a second year, MSW student enrolled in the Arizona State University Graduate Program in Social Work in Tucson, Arizona. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a doctoral degree in cultural anthropology. Her post-doctoral work includes research and publication in Tarahumara ritual and Mexican American mutual aid societies and university teaching in anthropology, sociology, and ethnic studies. She has done program evaluation in bilingual education, multicultural family strengthening programs, and substance abuse prevention for more than six years. She has also worked in program development for Native Americans in bilingual and early childhood education, language maintenance and cultural curriculum development. The career change to social work resulted from a long exploration to find the most conformity between her personal and professional values and goals. Her goals for the future include working toward CISW certification and doing clinical social work in a non-profit social services agency or another community in southeastern Arizona.

Vanesscia Lynn Bates. Ms. Bates is a full-time, first-year MSW student enrolled at the Washington University at St. Louis, George Warren Brown School of Social Work. She received her bachelor of social work degree from Arizona State University. A Navajo, raised by her great-aunt on the Navajo Reservation, she was fortunate to work with a skilled and compassionate social worker that helped her with many personal issues. She believes there is an increasing need for more American Indian professionals, like him, in social work. Ms. Bates has worked as a residential treatment specialist in a group home for clients with developmental disabilities; and completed her undergraduate field placement at the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Social Services as a case manager intern. Currently, Ms. Bates is working as an intern for the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities in Washington, DC. She plans to focus her career on designing and implementing programs and public policies that are consistent with American Indian customs, lifestyles, and traditions.

Hector Dominguez. Mr. Dominguez is a full-time, second-year MSW student at the Georgia State University School of Social Work in Atlanta. He holds dual nationality, as a citizen of the Republic of Panama and the United States. He earned a degree in finance at Saint Mary La Antigua University in Panama in 1986, worked for two international financial entities for 10 years, and in 1999 earned a bachelor of arts degree with a specialization in Spanish form Georgia State University. In addition to working for two years as a certified Spanish teacher in a public and private school, Mr. Dominguez volunteered at Catholic Social Services in Atlanta, where he helped Hispanic immigrants who wanted to learn English as a second language. He is currently serving as a graduate research assistant with Healthy Grandparents Project at Georgia State University, where he mentors youngsters and assists the grandparents raising them because of their parents’ absenteeism. His long-term goal is to become a school social worker in a diverse school.

Braulio García. Mr. García is a full-time first year MSW student enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Stanford University, Stanford, California in 1999. Mr. García’s parents are both immigrants to the United States from Mexico who grew up without the benefit of educational opportunities. They made education a centerpiece of their family’s value system. A high school honors student, active in many extra-curricular activities, Mr. García was accepted to Stanford University, where he received the National Hispanic Scholarship Foundation HACER Scholarship three times and worked hard to maintain good grades and participate in campus activities that enabled him to assist Latinos in surrounding communities. He worked two years as a medical social worker in a non-profit HIV clinic, serving mostly gay/bisexual monolingual Spanish-speaking immigrant Latina(o)s who were HIV-positive. His future goal is to work in community health settings, possibly at the city/county level, and eventually establish a non-profit mental health clinic specifically for Latino patients.

Anne Farina. Ms. Farina is a full-time, first-year MSW student at St. Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1999 she graduated from St. Louis University with a bachelor of science degree in clinical laboratory science. On graduation, she traveled to Mexico where she worked for two years at Santa Maria del Mexicano. Ms. Farina taught science to 7^th, 8^th and 9^th grade students and English to high school students and adults. In addition to performing volunteer work for social services agencies that provide services to the Latino population, she volunteers for the St. Louis Branch of the National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM), which helps migrant farm workers to gain better pay, living and working conditions and fair contracts. Ms. Farina also helped start St. Louis’s first Latino HIV- positive Support Group. Ms. Farina’s career goal is to continue in the area of Hispanic ministry in the United States and abroad.

Lori Moussapour. Ms. Moussapour is a full-time first-year MSW student at New York University in New York City. She has a bachelor of arts degree in political sciences with a minor in Spanish and a master of arts degree in the teaching of foreign languages from New York University. Ms. Moussapour is embarking on her second career. Formerly, she taught foreign languages (Spanish, ESL, and French) for 11 years, then took time off to be with her children and re-think her career goals. Throughout her academic and professional work she has specialized in working with the Hispanic and Latino population. As a teacher, she co-developed and co-coordinated the implementation of Different Eyes, Common Visions: A Student Conference Dedicated to Understanding and Respecting Human Diversity. This groundbreaking conference became the model on which many subsequent programs were designed across the nation. In her social work career, she is committed to working closely with the Latino population with a focus on cross-lingual or bilingual therapy.

Edith R. Pavez. Ms. Pavez is a full-time, first-year MSW student enrolled in Fordham University Graduate School of Social Work in New York City. She has a master of science degree from the New School University and a bachelor of arts degree from CUNY-Baruch College. Ms. Pavez came to the United States in 1976 after her former husband—a Chilean political prisoner—was released from internment. For nearly two decades she worked in administrative positions for non-profit and governmental human services agencies in New York City – at the same time raising a son and attending classes part-time. Always a social worker at heart, Ms. Pavez plans to practice as a clinical social worker, assisting individuals – especially disadvantaged Latino-Americans— and families who are greatly in need of bilingual/bicultural social services.

Dawn C. Phillips. Ms. Phillips is a part-time, second-year MSW student enrolled in the State University of New York at Buffalo graduate program in the School of Social Work. She completed the required core courses for a bachelor of arts degree in social sciences in the Interdisciplinary Program with a concentration in health and human services/community mental health and was part of the first class accepted into the new graduate BA/MSW program at the University of Buffalo. Ms. Phillips is a mature student who never gave up on her dream of finishing her education and working as a social worker. For 14 years she juggled the demands of raising children, working in a secretarial position at the University of Buffalo that progressed into an Administrative Assistant position, and attending school part-time. In September 2001 she began working as prevention case manager at the Native American Community Services (NACS) Agency – a non-profit agency that services the needs of the urban Native American community in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York. A member of the Six Nations, and having grown up on the Tuscarora Indian Reservation, she has a background that enables her to work effectively with other Native Americans. Ms. Phillips will complete her degree in May 2003.

Carrie Schonwald. Ms. Schonwald is a second-year, part-time MSW student at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she will also be commencing a concurrent masters program with the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs in the fall. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. For the past nine years, the focus of her combined pursuits – academic, work, volunteer, and travel – has been Latino culture. During her junior year of college, she spent a semester interning with the United Farm Workers’ Union in South Texas. The following year she did a second internship at United Migrant Opportunities Services. To continue her Spanish language studies she immersed herself in the language by moving to Cuenca, Ecuador, where she lived with an Ecuadorian family, studied Spanish, and taught English for two sequential spring semesters. Ms. Schonwald now works at Chief Stealth High School in West Seattle as an instructional assistant in the ESL Department. Her future goal is to work as a caseworker in a resettlement agency, such as the International Rescue Committee, so that she can work both domestically and internationally with Latino communities.

Marquita Rose Thompson. Ms. Thompson is a part-time second-year MSW student enrolled in the University of Washington Master of Social Work Program. Now in her mid-forties -- she began her college-level study after raising her two children. She earned an associate of arts degree at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington; and a bachelor of arts degree in social sciences, graduating magna cum laude, as a distance student at Washington State University. Although not an enrolled member of a Native American Tribe, she grew up playing with many Native American cousins and has an affinity with Native Americans. She is doing her foundation practicum at the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe. Her career goal is to work in a disadvantaged area of the United States among indigenous peoples.

Ruth Fizdale Program

NASW North Carolina Chapter– Kathy B. Boyd, Executive Director. "Advancing Social Work Salaries: North Carolina as an Advocacy Model"

The Ruth Fizdale Program underwrites research projects that link practice and policy issues with relevant social issues. The objective is to facilitate effective service delivery. A $4,000 grant has been awarded to the North Carolina NASW Chapter for a project that focuses on advancing social work salaries in North Carolina. The North Carolina Chapter plans to survey North Carolina state and county agencies to determine current salaries for clinical social workers. In addition, the Chapter will develop a guide that will enable social workers in that state to "self advocate," in an effort to increase social work salaries.