Pioneering Contributions
Dr. Michael Sheridan has been a social work practitioner, educator, and scholar for the past 35 years. Her significant impact has been in two important areas: spirituality and social work practice, and diversity and social justice issues.
Sheridan is a widely recognized scholar of spirituality and social work, creating a body of work that has been used nationally and internationally. She has more than 100 publications and presentations focused on the role of spirituality in human development, social work practice with diverse clients, and practitioner wellbeing and effectiveness. Her publications have garnered more than1,000 independent citations by other researchers and her research tools and surveys have been used by scholars in the United States and internationally, including North America, Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia.
She also has developed specialized courses on spirituality and transpersonal theory and is a founding member of the Council on Social Work Education's (CSWE) Religion and Spirituality Clearinghouse; an initiative aimed at providing curricular and teaching materials for social work educators nationwide. Because of her expertise, she was invited to present a Faculty Development Institute on Integrating Spirituality Across the Curriculum for CSWE's 2000 Annual Program Meeting. Taken together, Sheridan's efforts have advanced the "state of the art" of integrating spirituality into social work practice and education in a way that is grounded within the values and ethics of the profession and is respectful of the religious and spiritual diversity of clients and communities.
Sheridan's contributions in the areas of diversity and social justice issues have primarily been through her roles as an educator, trainer, consultant, and advocate. She has developed and taught courses on diversity and social justice throughout her academic career and provided curricular leadership in this area at her three faculty appointments at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), University of Northern Iowa (UNI), and the Catholic Univeristy of America (CUA). She developed and delivered a course on conflict resolution and peace building as part of CUA's graduate MTSW program in Mindanao, which was designed to support the peace process in this conflict-affected area of the Philippines. As a result of her experiences with the Mindanao program, she also published an article (with colleagues Dr. Susanne Bennett and Dr. Wendy Blome), on the importance of maintaining "cultural humility" when teaching internationally.
Sheridan also has been sought by a number of universities and organizations to provide training and consultation on diversity and inclusion issues in a variety of contexts both within and outside of social work. As a result of this work, she was recognized as a master teacher at CSWE's 2000 Annual Program Meeting, where she presented Teaching Social Justice: Becoming Vulnerable vs. Being Informed. As a citizen activist and advocate, she has volunteered for programs addressing social justice issues in areas of adult and juvenile corrections, supportive and affordable housing, homelessness and mental health, voting rights, and the road home for families in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
Career Highlights
Sheridan has served as Board Member and Treasurer for the national Society for Spirituality and Social Work for many years and was the Coordinator of the 6th International Conference on Spirituality and Social Work held at CUA in 2010 – an event that brought more than 250 social work faculty and practitioners from around the world to advance the field. She also was the Director of the Center for Spirituality and Social Work at CUA, which provided continuing education and training for hundreds of professionals on various aspects of spiritually sensitive social work practice.
In 2008, Sheridan also was awarded one of seven highly competitive grants from the John Templeton Foundation and Duke University's Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health. The only grant among the seven to be awarded to a social worker, this two-year research study investigated the role of spirituality as a health protective factor among African American caregivers of elders. Findings highlighted the importance of spiritual caregiving rewards in maintaining both physical and mental health.
Biographical Data
Sheridan received all three of her degrees - BS in Social Welfare, MSW, and PhD in Social Policy and Social Work - from VCU. She has more than 16 years of practice experience in both direct practice and administrative roles in the areas of juvenile and adult corrections, family and child services, healthcare, and mental health and substance abuse services. She has held tenured appointments with VCU, the UNI, and CUA. Currently, she is Special Advisor for Diversity and Wellness Programs with the Office of Intramural Training and Education at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.
Significant Achievements and Awards
Sheridan was honored for her social justice efforts by VCU's School of Social Work's "Social Justice Award" in 2000.Her excellence as a teacher was recognized by VCU's "Distinguished Teaching Award" in 2001.
Significant Publications
Two of Sheridan's publications have been recognized as making outstanding contributions to the knowledge base. The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work Education: A Survey of Student Views and Experiences (with co-author Dr. Katherine Amato-von Hemert), was nominated for the "Outstanding Research Award" by the Society for Social Work Research. Understanding the Pathways of Factors Influencing the Use of Spiritually-based Interventions (with co-author Dr. Connie Kvarfordt), was awarded the Journal of Social Work Education's "Best Quantitative Empirical Article Award of 2009." A third publication brought together her interest and commitment to both spirituality and social justice: Connecting Spirituality and Social Justice: Conceptualizations and Applications for Macro Social Work Practice, which was published by Routledge in 2014.This text is notable as one of the few contributions to the literature that explores the role of spirituality within macro social work practice.