My family was originally from West Virginia and we moved to Virginia when I was very young. We lived in coal mining communities in a rural area, where a sense of family is a deep value. I attended college as a first generation college student at Clinch Valley College in Wise, Virginia. Clinch Valley College was later renamed to University of Virginia's College at Wise. My parents and four older siblings were an immense source of encouragement and support through this experience. While I was a traditional student in regard to my age, I was very non-traditional in also having a full time job during my college years. This seemed to develop into a pattern throughout my academic experiences. After completing the undergraduate degree, I soon pursued a graduate program in social work at Radford University. I began my teaching career in 2005 after several years in the field. Most of my practice time was spent in medical settings, such as hospice, home health, and an acute care hospital. In the early years of my practice, I worked with a community research initiative through ETSU that worked to organize community members to address needs for early detection of breast and cervical cancer in the rural counties of Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee. This work involved collaborating with coalitions in those counties to educate women and organize cancer screening activities within the counties.
In addition to changing career paths in 2005, I also began pursuing a PhD in social work at Norfolk State University. This degree took some time to complete, since in addition to a full time job, I also had a family. My husband and son were quite supportive of my endeavors, but also quite relieved when the degree was finished in 2011. We all did the "dissertation dance" together, when the writing ended! The picture to the left is on my graduation day with my mentor Dr. Marvin Feit. While pursing the PhD, I became interested in social work practitioners' competencies of working with lesbian and gay clients. My dissertation research focused on the practice beliefs and practice behaviors of medical social workers with lesbian and gay clients. Issues of diversity and emphasis on culturally competency have always been a part of my teaching. I strive to help students realize that each individual is unique and the individual's values and beliefs may be very different from the social worker. This involves self-awareness and understanding your own values and beliefs.
My passion for teaching was realized during experiences supervising students completing field internships. I began my teaching career at Virginia Intermont College, initially by directing the distance education program. Later, I served as the program director for four years prior to coming to ETSU. Since coming to ETSU, my focuses have shifted somewhat with more involvement in the community and also working with students conducting research and writing activities. I served as the BSW Program Director for about 18 months and then transitioned to the MSW Program Director in July 2016.
In 2012, I began working with a regional task force in East Tennessee that focuses on the needs of homeless, unaccompanied youth in Northeast Tennessee. Through this initiative, I have provided field supervision to BSW and MSW students that are working to provide direct services to the youth and also working to remove barriers to service delivery for this population. Much of the task force's work has been to identify needs of the homeless youth in the region and build a network of resources to address those needs. Several new initiatives and paths have been realized through my initial involvement with the task force. I now serve on an advisory board of the Homes For Youth program, which was implemented as a result the task force's work. The social work department has also created new field placement sites within the regional library system to work directly with patrons in need of assistance, including those that are homeless. I serve as the field instructor for students in this placement. These past few years have shown me that we can make a difference just by getting involved!