DETROIT (March 7, 2012) - The Wayne State University School of Social Work (SSW) is pleased to welcome four new faculty members. They are Angelique Day, Ph.D., former U.S. House staffer Heather Edwards, Ph.D., Jamie Mitchell, Ph.D. and social welfare researcher Richard Smith, Ph.D.
Angelique Day joins the SSW faculty as assistant professor. She graduated from Western Michigan University with a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary health sciences. In addition to her work with young people aging out of foster care, Day has worked for the Michigan Department of Human Services in child protective services. She is experienced in research, and her training has included services in tribal communities across the state. Her professional experience in research, policy development, child welfare practice, and her personal experiences as a former ward of the court, make her uniquely qualified to provide leadership in training, research and consultation in the field of child welfare. Day is from Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Heather Edwards joined the SSW faculty as an assistant professor last fall. Previously Edwards lived in Tennessee, Illinois and Texas. She was a consultant for the State of the African American Male Initiative (SAAM), office manager/continuing education coordinator at DC Metro Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and a social worker for Progressive Life Center, Inc. She earned her B.S.W. from the University of Texas at Austin and her M.S.W. and Ph.D. in Social Work from Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she worked in the office of Congressman Danny K. Davis (D-IL).
Jamie Mitchell is from the Cleveland, OH area and joined the SSW faculty as assistant professor last fall. She earned her B.A. in social behavior sciences from Ohio State University, and her M.S.W. from the University of Tennessee before returning to OSU to complete her doctorate in Social Work. Mitchell's research focuses on the underlying social, ecological, biological and behavioral determinants of cancer and chronic disease-related health disparities affecting African American men. Social determinants of prostate and colorectal cancer disparities are a primary area of interest. This work helps inform community-based preventive health studies and practice with African American males and other underrepresented minority male communities.
Richard Smith earned his Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of California at Berkeley, where he also taught and held a research appointment at the California Social Work Education Center. He earned his M.S.W. and B.A. at the University of Michigan, and has an M.F.A. from Western Michigan University. His research interests include understanding urban community change, immigrant and minority entrepreneurship, sustainable community economic development and anti-poverty strategies. One of the more unusual assignments in his teaching career was a stint as a Peace Corps educational development specialist in Mongolia, where he trained English teachers. He later returned to Mongolia to manage the Spring English Language Center and consult for UNICEF. He is originally from St. Johns, Mich.
For more information regarding new faculty members, the SSW Faculty Appointments Committee or the School of Social Work, visit http://socialwork.wayne.edu/
*Photos available upon request
Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 400 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 32,000 students.