There are several updates to report among School of Social Work faculty. Three faculty members were promoted recently. They are: Jane Lee, promoted to associate professor, and Carrie Lanza and Khalfani Mwamba, who are new associate teaching professors. Ariana Cantu went from part-time lecturer to being hired as a full-time assistant teaching professor. We send our congratulations and best wishes to each of these individuals.
Jane Lee, who joined the School in 2017, is a new associate professor. Her area of research focuses on reducing health disparities among racial/ethnic and immigrant populations, with an emphasis on community collaboration. In 2020, Jane was one of two inaugural recipients of the Roffman Term Faculty Fellowships for Antiracism. She received a PhD from New York University Silver School of Social Work, an MSW from Columbia University, and a BA from Harvard University. She was also a pre-doctoral research scientist at the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health.
Carrie Lanza (PhD ’16) is a new associate teaching professor. Before joining the School faculty, Carrie taught for eight years at University of Washington Bothell in the School of Nursing & Health Studies as well as at the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences. Her research areas include social work and social welfare policy history, arts-based practice and research methods, and culture-centered community-engaged pedagogy, praxis and research. Her teaching is informed by her practice background, which includes psychosocial rehabilitation, maternal and infant mental health, and community-engaged and administrative practice settings.
Khalfani Mwamba (MSW ’09), who has been on the School faculty since 2016, is a new associate teaching professor. Khalfani’s work centers on the intersection of social and criminal justice. Last year, he was appointed one of two Roffman Term Faculty Fellows for Antiracism where his project revolved around healing and ending the trauma and suffering that are disproportionately inflicted by the criminal justice and prison system on families and communities of color.
Ariana Cantu (BASW ’06, MSW ’07), who has been a part-time lecturer since 2016, was recently hired in a competitive process as a full-time assistant teaching professor. Ariana has spent more than two decades as an organizer and social work practitioner, addressing issues of inequity, lack of access to basic needs, homelessness and poverty. She sees her role as preparing students for leadership and adaptability by cultivating their strengths through a learning environment that links theory to social justice practice in the field.