Denise Shavon Dawson received a Master of Social Work degree from East Carolina University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill. She is a licensed clinical social worker and licensed clinical addiction specialist. She joined the Ph.D. program after nearly a decade of program management and psychotherapy practice, including working with the U.S. Department of Defense, Duke Medical Center, UNC-Chapel Hill, City of Durham, and private practice. Ms.
Dawson has worked extensively in communities, schools, and medical clinics with adults with mental health, chronic illness, and domestic violence issues in Durham and Fayetteville, NC.

Ms. Dawson’s research interests include investigating social determinants of health and health disparities of marginalized groups with chronic illnesses and mental health disorders. Ms. Dawson endeavors to conduct research that examines the link between chronic illness and behavioral health symptoms.
Although locally driven, she is also interested in exploring health disparities in international settings.
Ms. Dawson returned to school to critically investigate the etiology of the medical and behavioral health challenges patients exhibited in clinical practice.

Independent Research Collaborations with Faculty:

1. Teletherapy: Is it the Way of the Future for Chronically Ill Patients
2. Black Youth Suicide & Resiliency Project

Awarded Grants:

1. National Science Foundation, I-Corps Innovation Grant, $3000
2. American Heart Association, assisted community partner Message and a Meal staff with obtaining agency funding for their Faith & Fitness hypertension management program $9,630

Lyneisha Dukes graduated from Fordham University in NY, NY with her Masters in Social Work with a concentration in Human Service Leadership. After attaining her degree she acquired her LMSW and chose to pursue a macro leadership track at one of NYC largest social service agencies. There, she led the Intern and Volunteer Department. As a liaison she connected community members, donors, and students to various sectors of social work practice including Domestic Violence, Early Childhood Mental Health, Transition Age Foster Care Youth, Intellectual and Developmentally Disabled, and Adults with Mental Health Challenges. Lyneisha prides herself on her commitment to Racial Equity and Inclusivity. She led a number of agency wide events to engage staff, students, and volunteers in ongoing learning grounded in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Lyneisha has supported qualitative research studies which explore the use of PReP as a HIV Prevention mechanism for incarcerated women and individuals with histories of incarceration. Lyneisha currently serves as the research assistant for the Essential Women of Color study, which explores the coping of women of color who have been deemed essential during COVID-19. Lyneisha’s scholarship will focus on the coping mechanisms of incarcerated mothers. Her research interests include: incarcerated women and men, incarcerated mothers, HIV prevention, and racial equity.

Zenobia B. Fennell received a Master of Social Work degree in the Joint MSW collaborative at North Carolina A&T State University and UNC-Greensboro, a Master’s of Divinity from Wake Forest School of Divinity, and a Doctorate of Ministry at United Theological Seminary. She joined the Ph.D. program after serving as an adjunct professor at Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, NC. Additionally, she’s worked in community mental health as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist. She’s worked with disabled veterans, geriatric, adults, children/adolescents, and serous and persistent mentally ill (SPMI) populations in outpatient settings located in Greensboro, Lexington, and Winston-Salem, NC. She currently serves as a therapist in the Clinical Unit of the Forsyth County Department of Social Services where in addition to providing specialized trauma related care for children/adolescents in foster care, she also assists with facilitating trauma workshops for the
staff in the agency’s Family and Children’s Division.

Zenobia’s research interest is in the area of, Spirituality and Social Media, as she explores the effects social media has on spiritual practices and faith-based institutions that assist in supporting community benevolence, emergency assistance, and social programs. Zenobia returned to school to analyze the trends and implications associated with the decline of these institutions and how individuals are seeking spiritual well-being via social media.

Vannessa received her Bachelor of Social Work degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her Master of Social Work degree at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She joined the Ph.D. program after a rewarding career as a manager, faculty instructor, field supervisor, clinical social worker, case manager and International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant serving clients in homes, hospitals, community medical clinics and private practice.

Vannessa’s research agenda is focused on the experiences of marginalized and underrepresented communities with an emphasis on People of Color (POC) and Aging Adults. She is especially interested in how people are impacted by inequities and how they manifest resilience and recovery when faced with health, mental health, and substance use challenges. Vannessa assumes a pragmatic stance when approaching research questions in order to incorporate methods that will provide the most utility under the specific research conditions at hand that will best inform professional practice. Her research interests and her approach are grounded in her interdisciplinary practice experience in community-based and healthcare settings.

Lubaba Mitchell graduated from City College (City University of New York) in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. She went on to complete a Master of Social Work degree at Fordham University in 2005 and a Master of Public Administration degree from Appalachian State University in 2012.

Lubaba has worked for many years in the field of family and child welfare, with experience in group homes, supportive housing, foster care casework, child protective services and juvenile justice. At each step of her career, Lubaba has pondered how clients might be better served with resources that support their needs, and whether such resources can be preventive rather than reactive. A major focus of her Public Administration degree was the engagement and retention of workers that provide services, with the idea that skilled and energized workers provide more effective and efficient services.

Lubaba joined the faculty of Forsyth Technical Community College in 2018 as the Field Work Liaison and an Instructor.

Leigh Norwood is a licensed clinical social worker with more than 16 years in the field. She received her Master’s of Social Work from the Joint M.S.W. Program at UNC Greensboro and NC A&T State University. Her experience includes acute trauma response in a local police and area mental health collaborative program, as well as managed care and intensive community-based program administration. Currently, Leigh serves as the Assistant Director at a university counseling center where she provides individual and group therapy, in addition to administrative supervision of senior staff. Training and supervision are a significant area of interest for Leigh and she has clinically supervised practicum students and provisionally licensed social workers for a number of years.

Her research interests have evolved from this experience, and she currently seeks to examine the training opportunities offered for social work trainees, at the master’s and post master’s level. In particular, Leigh wants to explore the disparities in field training opportunities based on personal identity (race/ethnicity), professional identity (social work), and the intersection of the two. Leigh believes that the marginalization and oppression, as it is experienced by social work practitioners who work in the mental health field, is an important area to study in order to move the profession forward.

Neema Olagbemiro received a Bachelor of Arts in Information Systems Management with a minor in Sociology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Her professional work experience includes roles at the county and state level during which she managed and oversaw disease intervention programs and worked with various at-risk target populations ranging from refugee’s to inmates in the criminal justice system.

Neema’s broad research interests include the exploration and employment of social work competencies in humanitarian emergencies. More specifically, she seeks to explore the extent to which the presence and or absence of such competencies, either hinders or enhances occurrences of substance abuse and mental health when dealing with migrant and refugee populations affected by humanitarian emergencies.

Michael C. Pearson received a Master of Social Work from Indiana University Purdue University with a focus on MSW in Mental Health and Addictions. Michael’s post MSW experience include working with disadvantaged populations, homelessness, and housing. He has experience leading seminars, classes and groups that address special interest topics and the dynamics of personal development.

Michael’s research interest includes the effects of homelessness on women. He would like to establish a facility that utilizes research to improve the level of function of homeless women’s housing situation, mental health, and substance abuse. Specifically, Michael has been examining the impact of anxiety as protective and risk factors, addictions and social determinant of health for homeless women.

Currently, Michael is analyzing a secondary data set from the Gain ss to explore the impact of internal and external factors affecting the homeless population.

• Spring 2020 Presentation and Awarding for Graduate Research Expo on Entry & Exit Dynamics of Homelessness—supporting faculty in research review Dr. Despard, UNCG.
• Summer 2020 Funded Assistantship to conduct research on Fathers: fathering without a home– supporting faculty topic review by Dr. Poole and research supervision by Dr. Despard.
• Fall 2020 Grant Proposal for research on Racial Equity Community Grant on Homeless Prevention Strategies—Supporting Faculty on topic review and CBPR review Dr. Monico, UNCG
• Fall 2020 Proposal for Sociological Initiative Foundation Grant for Improving Disruptions and Interruptions in housing Services —Supporting Faculty by Dr. Monico, UNCG
• Spring 2021 Present at UNCG Virtual Conference Lecture Series—Prevention Strategies: COIVD-19 and homeless public Health Concerns—Supporting faculty Dr. Monico

J. Dontae’ Roberts received a Master of Social Work degree at the Jane Adams School of Social Work with a concentration in Urban Health and Community Development. He received the Licensed Clinical Social Worker certification and has practiced at the Veteran Affairs for 5 years, as well as a research assistant at UNC- Greensboro. He joined the Ph.D. program after nearly a decade of psychotherapy practice and medical social work working on multiple interdisciplinary teams.

Dontae’s research interest is in macro social work and program development. He is also interested in epigenetics, which is how the environment can influence gene expression and lastly he is interested in fatherhood; he believes that strong family programs have to include the voice of the father. He returned to school to think creatively about the challenges he observed as a practitioner and researcher.

Dontea’s research on epigenetic awareness and fatherhood was accepted into the 2021 Millennial Social Work Conference. He is also a Child Well-Being Research Fellow and The Moynihan Fatherhood Fellow.

Sally Ryman received a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Russian from Bucknell University. They joined the Ph.D. program after eight years in a community-based health advocacy organization managing programs, supervising care coordinators, and working to improve health equity across Colorado and especially in rural, mountain communities. They also spent just over year providing weekend on-call crisis mental health services in rural Colorado and five months as a home health social worker in rural North Carolina. Prior to a career in human services, Sally spent over ten years in publishing, producing medical journals and political science textbooks and reference books.

Sally’s research interests include gender identity and sexuality, particularly the concepts of masculinity and femininity for nonbinary individuals and gender and identity development for trans* individuals who transition as children compared to those who transition in adulthood. They are also interested in exploring larger questions of human rights, including economic justice in rural America, racial and gender equity, and abolishing the current criminal “justice” and prison systems in the United States. Sally returned to school as a step toward changing the world through education.

I was involved in two sessions at the CHHS Health Disparities Symposium in November 2020:

• Poster Presentation – Identifying Health Inequities Among Trans HBCU Students.
• Co-presenter – Teixeira-Poit, S., Doss, C., Shrestha, S., Wade, J., Lee, A., McCain, D.T., Ryman, S., Meyarzum, J., Kendrick, F., & Aiken-Morgan, A.T. (2020). Using technology to support HBCU students experiencing psychosocial risk factors during COVID-19. Health Professionals for Equity in Health and Healthcare Symposium. Greensboro, NC.

I was also a guest speaker for Dr. Gowdy’s masters-level research class regarding the importance of doing research as a social worker.

Indhira Udofia graduated with a Master of Divinity from Duke University and a Masters in Social Work University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill from their joint dual degree program in 2016. After her program, she spent an additional year of study looking at trauma theology and queer theory at Boston University. There, she earned a Master of Sacred Theology (STM) in 2017. In her studies at Boston University, she focused on purity culture and the liberative potential of Black queer women’s relationships. Her current research interest is examining the impact of toxic religiosity within Black Church spaces on African American’s identity formation and sociocultural functioning.

Indhira Udofia has vast working experiences in community and clinical care including therapeutic services, spiritual services, clinical and academic research, writing and collaborative projects. Her extensive work experiences in clinical and community settings since 2009 as well as faith communities (from 2014) shaped her deep passion for helping communities and individuals recover from trauma—especially in spaces of spiritual abuse and grief—in order to be empowered in their own lives and healing. She currently works as a Clincial Lead for a community mental health agency and works as a faith practitioner with a local faith community in Greensboro.

Michelle Chambers

MSW from UNC-Chapel Hill

Research Interests: Substance abuse, African American women, child welfare involvement

Matriculated Fall 2019

Keya Glover

MSW from University of South Carolina, Columbia

Research Interests: African American mental health and culturally relevant practices, mental health and African American college students, meditation and mindfulness

Matriculated Fall 2019

Aalih Hussein

MSW from Marywood University

Research Interests: Muslim American women and mental health; Millennial and first generation Muslim American women.

Matriculated Fall 2019

Lashaunda Lucas

MSW from East Carolina University

Research Interests: self-worth development for women of color and how it hinders or enhances performance in relationships, the workplace and academic settings.

Matriculated Fall 2019

Theresa Palmer

MSW from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Research Interests: diversity, oppression, microaggression, and effective pedagogy in the context of social work education

Matriculated Fall 2019

Kathryn Roosevelt

MSW from Florida Gulf Coast University

Research Interests: Older adults associated with pre-retirement planning and post-retirement wellness

Matriculated Fall 2019