RESEARCH EXCELLENCE
Student-engaged participatory research
Associate Professor Hyojin Im, Ph.D., led a Society for Social Work and Research symposium on refugee health and mental health, featuring five VCU social work grad students.
“Guiding them through research design, data collection, analysis and writing is about nurturing critical thinking, scholarly inquiry and ethical practices,” Im says. “This includes working with students as co-researchers and collaborators, regardless of academic stage.”
Sessions emphasized the role of Community-Based Participatory Research. “CBPR is a collaborative ethos involving direct engagement with refugee communities as active research partners.”
One for the AGESW
Professor Denise Burnette, Ph.D., earned an unprecedented honor from the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work when she received its Career Achievement Award in 2023. Paired with an AGESW Faculty Achievement Award in 1999, she is the only person ever to receive both awards.
“It is such a rewarding experience to come full circle,” she says. Colleague Kyeongmo Kim, Ph.D., social work associate professor, says, “The award acknowledges Denise’s exceptional leadership in scholarship, teaching and mentorship in the fields of social work and aging. Denise has devoted her life to advancing social work education in gerontology and guiding both faculty and students.”
Ending youth homelessness
Associate Professor Alex Wagaman, Ph.D., was named a U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness special advisor on youth homelessness in May 2024. “I feel really, really honored and excited – and a little overwhelmed. It’s a lot. It’s a big lift,” she says.
In this role, Wagaman is integrating youth with lived experience as partners and future policy-makers while developing a plan to prevent and end youth homelessness. “We would love to see pipelines for young adults with lived experience to eventually be in staff positions to run what we build out. That’s ultimately the goal.”
