The faculty of the Wayne State University School of Social Work has been enriched with the addition of an expert in mental illness, particularly substance abuse and its impact on families.

In August, Suzanne Brown joined the faculty as an assistant professor after receiving her Ph.D. at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Before obtaining her doctorate, Brown worked in community mental health settings for 15 years. She was clinical director for the May Institute, a behavioral health organization in Boston, for eight years, prior to which she was an outpatient clinician focused on trauma, eating disorders, persistent mental illness and personality disorders.

Brown describes her clinical approach as “eclectic, utilizing methods from psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, family systems and narrative perspectives.”

“The Wayne State School of Social Work is a great match for me,” Brown said. “This is a place where I feel encouraged to bring all of my research interests, teaching interests and clinical experience together in the service of scholarship and the social work profession.”

While at Case Western Reserve University, Brown was an NIDA-funded research fellow on a longitudinal study of the social networks of women in substance abuse treatment while conducting her own research on the parenting competence, parental bonding history and social networks of the mothers in the study. She has co-authored multiple book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles on a variety of topics.

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 370 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 29,000 students.