Wurzweiler Profs to Cuba for Public Health/ Social Work Discussions

Six Wurzweiler professors (Drs. Beder, Hendricks, LaPorte, Mason, Sweifach and Strug) will participate in a research program in Havana, Cuba, along with faculty from the Department of Family and Social Medicine of the Albert Einsteing College of Medicine. The purpose of this program is for the Yeshiva University faculty to share practice and research experiences, and collaborate on research with their Cuban counterparts in public health, medicine and social work. The program will take place in Havana from December 5-9, 2006.

Naison and Clemans Speak at Fieldwork Breakfast - Block Conference

The Block Conference is an annual event where field work instructors for the Block Education Program come to New York from all over North America to meet with their students' faculty advisors, share ideas and sharpen their supervisory skills. The Field Work Instructors breakfast is an annual event for their New York City counterparts who work with students in the Concurrent and PEP programs. This year, for the first time, the programs overlapped. On Monday, November 14th, field instructors from both programs gathered in Belfer Commons to hear speeches by Fordham University's Mark Naison and Wurzweiler's Shanti Clemans on the subject of The Republican Agenda and the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and Group Work and Trauma: Theoretical and Practice Implications.

The program was organized by Dr. Ronnnie Glassman, Director of the Wurzweiler Field Work Office, and members of the Field Work Committee. The mini-conference was very well-attended and the audience was energized by the speakers, and by a scripted role-play wherein faculty members and field instructors portrayed members of a PTSD support group who had been victims of the 2003 Staten Island ferry crash.

Dean Sheldon Gelman introduced the event and Dr. Glassman moderated.




Dr Mark Naison, Professor of African American Studies and History, Fordham University



Dr. Shanti Clemans, Assistant Professor, Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University

we create and sustain as humans are our true treasures.

Dr. Adrienne Asch Joins Wurzweiler Faculty

Noted bioethicist, Dr. Adrienne Asch, has joined the Wurzweiler faculty as the Edward and Robin Milstein Professor of Bioethics

Dr. Asch, a world renowned bioethicist and authority on the rights of the disabled, holds both an MS in Social Work and Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Columbia University.

She has served on:

• the New Jersey Commission on Legal and Ethical Problems in the Delivery of Heath Care
• as a senior Human Rights Specialist with the New York State Division of Human Rights
• as a member of the Social Security Administration’s Commission Childhood Disability
• and as a consultant to the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing (DHHS).

In 2003 she was a Fellow at the Hastings Center and she received an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Swarthmore College in 2001.

Dr. Asch is the author or co-author of numerous books, monographs and articles dealing with reproductive rights, disabilities, and bioethics.

Although based at Wurzweiler, Dr. Asch is also playing an active role at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, and Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology.

She is also playing a central role in the University’s evolving Center on Bioethics and Civilization.

Prior to coming to Wurzweiler, Dr. Asch was the Henry R. Luce Professor in Biology, Ethics and the Politics of Human Reproduction at Wellesley College.

Two New Books by Wurzweiler Faculty

Nancy Beckerman's new book Couples of Mixed HIV status: Clinical Issues and Interventions, is published by Haworth Press and is currently available through them or through Amazon and other booksellers

Here's what one reviewer had to say about the book....

A GOLDMINE. . . . Nancy Beckerman is, first and foremost, a gifted couples therapist. She is also someone with a wealth of knowledge and experience about the psychosocial challenges associated with clients impacted by HIV. For those negotiating the many complex emotional, medical, and sexual challenges of being in a mixed HIV status couple, she clearly describes several intervention frameworks for couples therapy, and then guides us as to which framework works best, under what circumstances, and why. Also of note is that the challenges described by the author are derived from evidence-based sources. The author provides many rich clinical vignettes and session transcripts that bring clients' concerns to life and help the clinician more fully understand how to best use one's 'therapeutic self.' A WINNER!

Vincent J. Lynch, PhD, MSW, Founder and Chair, The Annual National Conference on Social Work and HIV/AIDS; Director of Continuing Education and Adjunct Associate Professor, Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, Chestnut Hill, Mass.

• Read more about Couples of Mixed HIV Status
  
  

Dr. Richard Caputo's new book, Challenges of Aging on U.S. Families; Policy and Practice Implications, is also published by Haworth Press, and available in the Spring of 2005.
Here's what one reviewer said...

EXCELLENT. . . . I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK. . . . Presents some issues that have not been offered in depth in the gerontological literature. VERY TIMELY. . . Discusses the privatization of Social Security and the problems of adult children and older adults as they make decisions for future caregiving responsibilities. Each chapter offers provocative ideas, especially the chapter on the influence of inheritance in future caregiving for older persons. This is a great chapter for debate in the classroom.

Terry Territo, PhD, Professor, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina
Read more about Challenges of Aging on U.S. Families.

Mellor Honored by SSANY, GSA and NYAM

The State Society for Aging of New York has named Dr. M. Joanna Mellor, a distinguished gerontologist and WSSW faculty member, as the 2005 recipient of the Walter M. Beattie Jr. award. The purpose of the award is to honor a distinguished member of SSA for outstanding contributions to the organization and for commitment to its goals.The award will be presented at the 33rd Annual Meeting, October 19 through 21, in Verona, New York. Dr. Mellor will speak on the Future of Aging: 2015 and Beyond.

Dr. Mellor was recently appointed a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. She is also a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.

A new book, Baby Boomers: Can my Eighties be like my Fifties? edited by Dr. Mellor and Dr. Helen Rehr, and partly written by Dr. Mellor, was published by Springer in June of this year.