School of Social Work New Faculty members

We welcome Laura Boutwell and Judith S. Willison to our School of Social Work beginning in the Fall, 2011.

 

Laura Boutwell received her Ph.D. in Sociology and graduate certificate in Women's and Gender Studies from Virginia Tech.  She holds a Master's in Social Work from Radford University. Laura's background working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth; youth of color; and refugee and immigrant youth deeply informs her current community-based scholar-activism with refugee girls. Her work has earned several recognitions, including the 2011 Outstanding Doctoral Student Award in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and the 2011 Advancing Women Award, both at Virginia Tech. Her research interests include youth development, refugee and immigrant resettlement, participatory action and arts-based research, relational practice models, and feminist social work.

 

 

Judith S. Willison, LICSW, received her MSW from Boston College in 1987 and has since worked in the field of forensic social work including court-diversion, and correctional mental health as a clinician, administrator, supervisor and trainer. Ms. Willison most recently held the position of Director of Operations for Forensic Health Services, where she helped to develop and implement specialized mental health programs for youth and adults in the justice systems. Ms. Willison has expertise in the areas of violence prevention and gender-responsive program development for girls and women in the justice systems and is published in the area of assessment and intervention with women incarcerated for violent crimes. Ms. Willison began teaching as adjunct faculty in the social work program at Bridgewater State in 1993 and went on to hold adjunct faculty positions at the Simmons, Smith and Boston University Graduate Schools of Social Work.

Ms. Willison is a doctoral candidate at the Simmons School of Social Work and expects to complete her Ph.D. in May 2011. Her dissertation research seeks to locate significant individual and structural risk correlates for women's violent crime, and reflects her interest in advocacy and intervention with female prisoners. Her research and teaching interests include analyses of the place of social systemic influences on family and community violence; the implications of institutionalized white supremacy and its relation to the workings of the justice and other systems; the relationship between trauma and violence; and successfully collaborating with clients who are mandated to treatment.

Last Modified: March 28, 2011