Annual Report

FACULTY-STAFF EXCELLENCE

Aging well: GSA awards annual fellowship

Kyeongmo Kim, Ph.D., associate professor, was named a 2025 fellow by the Gerontological Society of America in the Social Research, Policy and Practice Section. GSA, the nation’s oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization focused on aging, awards fellow status as peer recognition for outstanding contributions to the field of gerontology. Dr. Kim was one of 16 in his category and 47 overall.

"While I have previously received the (GSA's) Carroll Estes Rising Star Award and a Faculty Achievement Award, this is clearly the most significant professional recognition as it acknowledges my ongoing contributions to improving the quality of life of older adults through research, education and service," Kim says. "It is my deep honor to earn this recognition."

Online gaming as training tool

Adrienne Baldwin-White, Ph.D., assistant professor, has developed two interactive games to help college students better understand and prevent situations that could lead to sexual or dating violence. “Once Upon a Time” presents scenarios and conversations as though they are text messages from friends, providing a more engaging and realistic way for students to learn how violence can occur, and to promote bystander intervention.

She is also developing, with students from VCU engineering, an animated game, “Student Body,” that will allow students to navigate through a campus map, generating scenarios based on their decisions. The game will also address human trafficking scenarios and introduce more diverse characters. Baldwin-White is working with VCU TechTransfer and Ventures to help license the games for other universities.

“There’s something about video games that helps information stick,” she says. “I decided that a video game would actually be a good way to educate students on gender-based violence and how to prevent it.”

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Connecting through sound & color

When LaKesha Bennett meets future Rams, she’s invariably wearing black and gold, and usually carrying a song in her heart and on her lips.

“Music transcends all boundaries, and it has the power to put people at ease and command attention,” says Bennett, who might break out her sing-song voice – at an open house or preview day – as the school’s senior recruitment specialist. 

She received the School of Social Work’s Outstanding Staff Award for 2024-25, leading recruitment efforts that led to significant year-over-year increases for new students in both the B.S.W. (42% more transfers) and M.S.W. programs (45% more on-campus students). Just as her voice puts students at ease, her wardrobe gives them a taste of VCU spirit.

“Wherever I go, whenever I am on the road, when people see me and my gold blazer, they will say, ‘You’re rocking that black and gold.’ When I put it on, it’s almost like putting on that cape and going into that phone booth, right? I’m putting that on with pride. I love it!”

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Supporting study of Kerala Diaspora

VCU’s Global Education Office awarded Miriam Kuttikat, Ph.D., associate professor, a grant to participate as a fellow in the University of Oxford’s Harris Manchester College Summer Research Institute in London for a week in June-July.

Kuttikat’s project is titled “The Kerala Diaspora Study: A five-site examination of health & wellbeing, food & nutrition, social network, and lifestyle trends of Malayalis in Kerala, USA, UK, Australia and Canada.” The focus is on epidemiological patterns such as prevalence rates, demographic distributions, food nutrition and lifestyle trends of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes among Malayalis.

“By identifying shared and divergent patterns in disease prevalence and lifestyle behaviors, my research will provide critical insights into the socio-cultural and epidemiological factors that contribute to these health outcomes,” she says. 

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Richmond-Ghana virtual exchange

Nicole Corley, Ph.D., associate professor, worked with a counterpart at the University of Ghana's Department of Social Work to build a four-week spring virtual exchange, finding common ground and bridging a difference of five time zones. 

VCU Global provided an award to support the project, a collaborative module exploring policy-related matters across borders in Corley's Policy Communication and Organizational Practice II class and UG faculty member Jones Adu-Gyamfi's Project Development and Management class; 21 VCU and 20 UG students participated. The virtual exchange focused on increasing international and global awareness and competencies of social work students through carefully planned online learning activities. 

“The experience was enriching, eye-opening and empowering,” one UG student shared in a survey. “It broadened my perspectives, fostered global connections and ignited a passion for international social work.”

Conference call!

• Daniel Baslock, Ph.D., assistant professor: “Evaluating the Impact of a Blended Payment Model on Access to Co-occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Treatment,” American Public Health Association Annual Meeting
• Qasarah Bey Spencer, Ed.D., associate professor in teaching: workshop facilitation, Communities in Schools-Virginia Summit
• Larkin Francis, Ph.D., assistant professor; doctoral student Ya-Li Yang; and colleague: “Recovery Identity Development in Action: An Exploration of How Collegiate Recovery Programs Cultivate Growth and Drive Resilience to the Impacts of Trauma,” Association of Recovery in Higher Education Annual Meeting
• Maurice Gattis, Ph.D, associate professor, and colleagues: “Equipping Faculty & Staff to Work with LGBTQIA+ Students Abroad,” NAFSA Association of International Educators Region VIII Conference
• Ananda Newmark, Ph.D., associate professor in teaching, and colleagues: “2x+b = Count Me In! Adding Multidisciplinary Content Expertise to Assessment Experience to Solve for Meaningful, Robust Measurement of Undergraduate Quantitative Literacy in General Education,” Virginia Assessment Group Conference
• Newmark and colleagues: “From Diverse Perspectives to Unified Success in Engaging Faculty and Promoting Student Learning: An UNCommon Case Study of VCU’s General Education Assessment Strategy,” Undergraduate Education at Research Universities (UERU) National Conference.
• Stephanie Odera, Ed.D., associate professor in teaching, multiple presentations, Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors Conference:
• “BSW Curriculum Renewal: Implementing Programmatic Shared Language to Further Center ADEI Across the Curriculum“
• “Global Social Work Perspectives: Human Rights & Social Justice in Kerala, India” 
• “Navigating BSW Education in a Time of Crisis: Teaching and Learning in a Politically and Philosophically Divided Nation”
• Naomi Reddish, M.S.W., administrator of child welfare initiatives; Amanda Long, M.S.W., coordinator of child welfare initiatives; and colleague: “High-Impact Practices Through the Lens of Collaboration; Testimonies and Reflections from Community Partners and Alumni,” National Title IV-E Roundtable.
• Rebecca Smith, Ph.D., research instructor; Larkin Francis, Ph.D., assistant professor; doctoral students Ya-Li Yang and Rose Miola; and colleague: “Recovery outcomes as a function of harm reduction pathways in collegiate recovery participants,” Collaborative Perspectives on Addiction.

⇨ Learn more:  2024 Council on Social Work Education conference presentations
⇨ Learn more:  2025 Society for Social Work and Research conference presentations