College of Education and Human Development

School of Social Work

SSW Students and Faculty Present Research at the MSSA Conference

SSW faculty and students participated in the annual Minnesota Social Service Association conference took place from March 26th to the 28th at the Minneapolis Convention Center. This is the largest conference for social and human service professionals in Minnesota.

The School of Social Work faculty, staff, and students showed up to represent the School as attendees and presenters, including:

  • Kristine Piescher, Assistant Executive Director for the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare, and Michael Hoffmeister, Director of Research and Evaluation, were coauthors of research in Student Showcase #1 with PhD Student Rachel Kritzik, who presented the paper titled "Universal Support, Local Impact: Insights into Workplace Dynamics in Child Welfare."
  • Assistant professor Ceema Samimi presented alongside co-authors in the session "Exploring Our Strengths: A Community Asset Mapping Interactive Workshop." The workshop guided participants in identifying community strengths through asset mapping. By identifying resources, attendees will shift their focus from challenges to opportunities, gained skills to identify and map assets, and tips on how to engage in effective collaboration for meaningful change in the communities they serve.
  • Practicum Coordinators Katy Cobb and Kelley Leaf presented "Give Them a Hand Up: Supporting the Next Generation of Practitioners in Your Agency," encouraging participants will learn to reframe their experience supervising interns. Cobb and Leaf shared tips and tools for helping interns get the most out of their learning experience, and keeping supervisors on track.
  • Melissa Mendez, Child Welfare Education Partnership Coordinator at the Minnesota Child Welfare Training Academy was one of the presenters of the workshop "Classroom to Workforce: Innovating Child Welfare Education and Workforce Stability in Minnesota." 
  • PhD student Betsey Horgos presented her research in a student showcase: "Medicaid as an Enabling Resource for Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment Among Women: Insights from the NSDUH 2015-2023."

Read about all the conference presenters. Thank you to everyone who showed up to represent the School of Social Work!