We invite you to honor your mentor through the Women’s Council Mentor Recognition Fund. This mentoring project not only recognizes the influence of mentors in the lives of our members but also helps support the ongoing work of the Women’s Council.
Last year, the Feminist Networking Breakfast at CSWE's Annual Program Meeting (APM) in Atlanta, Georgia recognized and celebrated feminist mentors for their contributions to the increased visibility of women in social work education. Honorees received a certificate from their proteges and were listed in the 2023 Feminist Networking Breakfast program. Mentors will be similarly recognized at the 2024 APM in Kansas City, Missouri, later this year. Recognize your mentors today!
CSWE membership is an eligibility requirement for all commission and council awards. To check your membership status, or link your membership your social work program visit CSWE Membership and click Link to Program/Join CSWE.
2024 Winners
Dr. Christine Flynn Saulnier, PhD, MSW, LICSW
City University of New York, College of Staten Island
Nominated by: Lacey Sloan
Christine Flynn Saulnier holds an MSW from Boston University and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a professor, department chair, and former dean at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, where the MSW program has a single specialization in disability studies. Her scholarly publications address feminist theories, alcohol and drug problems in women, and lesbian health issues. Her practice background includes serving people with disabilities, lesbian couples, and veterans. She thoroughly enjoys mentoring social work students, particularly helping them to polish their group work, analytical, and writing skills. She equally enjoys mentoring social work faculty, supporting them in their academic journeys. Dr. Flynn Saulnier is now working on a book on women and alcohol, assisted by multiple MSW students, and encouraged in her endeavor by close colleagues/friends.
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Dr. Suk-Hee Kim
Northern Kentucky University, School of Social Work
Nominated by: Sheri Frey
Dr. Suk-hee Kim is an Associate Professor with tenure in the School of Social Work within the College of Health and Human Services at Northern Kentucky University (NKU). Dr. Kim is a nationally recognized scholar, educator, and community partner. She also received one of the highest honors in U.S. Social Work Education: The Distinguished Recent Contributions to Social Work Education Award from the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). Dr. Kim serves as a Council on Social Work Education Board of Directors as a Graduate Faculty Representative in the U.S. She is also the elected President of the Korean American Social Work Educators Association, affiliated with the CSWE at the national level. Dr. Kim has over twenty-two years of experience at both the national and international levels. One of Dr. Kim’s most significant contributions to social work education is her mentorship impact on students, colleagues, and community partners. She has guided students in various research projects, including undergraduate and graduate capstones projects and funded research projects. Dr. Kim’s graduate students earned various institutional research awards while they were studying, such as the best virtual research presentation at the Research Celebration, and the library research award for several years at NKU. Also, Dr. Kim’s graduate student with her mentorship published in her institutional student peer-reviewed journal this year 2024. Dr. Kim has fostered a culture of excellence, innovation, and student mentorship in social work education and practice.
Dr. Kathryn Libal, PhD
University of Connecticut, School of Social Work and Human Rights
Nominated by: Madri Hall-Faul and Emily Loveland
Kathryn Libal, Ph.D., is director of the Human Rights Institute and professor of social work and human rights at the University of Connecticut. Since 2007, she has taught at the School of Social Work and Human Rights Institute, specializing in human rights, refugee resettlement, and social welfare. Current scholarship examines: 1) the localization of human rights norms and practices in the United States, with a focus on social mobilization for the right to adequate food and housing; and 2) the politics and practices of voluntarism and refugee resettlement in the United States. Libal co-edited Human Rights in the United States: Beyond Exceptionalism (2011) and authored, with Scott Harding, Human Rights-Based Approaches to Community Practice in the United States (2015). She also co-edited, with S. Megan Berthold, Rebecca Thomas, and Lynne Healy, Advancing Human Rights in Social Work Education (2014); Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Interdisciplinary and Comparative Perspectives with S. Megan Berthold (2019) and most recently co-edited, with Molly Land and Jillian Chambers, Beyond Borders: The Human Rights of Noncitizens at Home and Abroad (2021). Libal serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Human Rights and Social Work and on the Steering Committee of Scholars at Risk USA Chapter. She is an executive committee member of Consortium of Higher Education Centers for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies. She teaches courses on human rights and social work, qualitative research methods, social policy analysis, and approaches to human rights advocacy at the BA, BSW, MSW, and Ph.D. levels.
Dr. Sh'Niqua Alford
Texas Christian University
Nominated by: Nada Elias-Lamber
Dr. Sh’Niqua Alford, LCSW-S is a licensed clinical social worker, board-approved clinical supervisor, and registered play therapist from Fort Worth, Texas. With 19 years of direct social work experience, Sh’Niqua has worked in the areas of child welfare, school social work, mental health, and social work education. Sh’Niqua is an associate professor of professional practice and undergraduate program director in the Department of Social Work at Texas Christian University, starting with the department in August 2018. Additionally, Sh’Niqua is the owner and founder of Restoring Serenity Counseling Center, PLLC, a group private practice in Arlington, Texas providing mental health services for children, adolescents, and adults.
Sh’Niqua’s practice experience is grounded in trauma-focused interventions, with an emphasis on the integration of neuroscience and clinical social work. Sh’Niqua’s clinical focus explores the mental health experiences of Black women, specifically related to anxiety, depression, and stress. Sh’Niqua earned her DSW from Barry University, MSW from the University of Texas at Arlington, and BSW from Texas Christian University. She is also actively engaged with NASW Texas.
Scripture states, “She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future” (Proverbs 31:25). This Bible verse is one of inspiration and offers Sh’Niqua guidance and motivation as she works diligently in the challenging yet rewarding fields of social work academia and mental health.
Dr. Mary Twis, PhD, LMSW-AP
Texas Christian University
Nominated by: Nada Elias-Lambert
Mary Twis, PhD, LMSW-AP is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at Texas Christian University, where she also serves as the MSW Program Director. In addition to her administrative duties, Dr. Twis is a nationally and internationally recognized subject matter expert on youth sex trafficking. She has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles on human trafficking and related subjects like homelessness and intimate partner violence, and presented her research findings at numerous social work conferences and as a visiting scholar at The Hebrew University. Dr. Twis’ research exemplifies community-engaged praxis and the teacher-scholar model, as she collaborates closely with human trafficking survivors, anti-trafficking NGOs, community stakeholders, and TCU students in hermixed methods approach to research.
Dr. Joyce White, PhD, LMSW
The University of Texas at Arlington, School of Social Work
Nominated by: Kelli Rogers
Dr. White is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the School of Social work with a primary focus on the Community and Administrative Practice specialty. She also served as the Director of Graduate Programs at the UTA School of Social Work from April 2022 through May 2023. In this role, she oversaw the masters and doctoral programs; collaborated with students, faculty, and staff regarding program elements and curricula; and provided leadership and mentoring to graduate interns and students. Prior to serving her current role, she previously served as an adjunct faculty in the UTA School of Social Work.
Dr. White has held a variety of senior and executive level positions that included Grants Manager & Project Director at Dallas County in the Criminal Justice Division, Vice President of Compliance and Administrative Director at Dallas Housing Authority. Dr. White was also the Founder and Executive Director for Family & Leadership Empowerment Network, Director of Community Information and Outcome Management at the United Way of Greater St. Louis, and Project Director at the Father’s Support Center in St. Louis. Additionally, she served as adjunct faculty at University of Phoenix for ten years.
In each of these roles, Dr. White has engaged in various activities such as leading collaboratives an committees, program development, curriculum development. Dr. White also has extensive experience in grant management, professional development, budgeting and financial management, staff training and supervision, as well as student education. Dr. White enjoys exercising, walking, and relaxing outdoors.
Dr. Dana B. Wilson, PhD, LCSW
Morgan State University, School of Social Work
Nominated by: Christa Gilliam
Dr. Dana Burdnell Wilson is Associate Professor and Chair of the MSW Department in the School of Social Work at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. Her scholarship focus includes women in leadership, mentoring emerging leaders, reimagining child welfare, emerging adults in foster care preparing for independence, mature women of color pursuing doctoral degrees, and social justice as an ethical imperative.
Dr. Wilson’s teaching experience includes social welfare policy, organizational policy & leadership, social work research and urban child welfare. She is Co Editor-in-Chief of the Prose Award winning journal, Urban Social Work. Dr. Wilson serves as Principal Investigator for the MSU Child Welfare Fellowship Program. She was Co-PI of the Urban Women on the Rise Fellowship program with PI, Dr. Denise Davison. Through this leadership development initiative, eight women of color MSW students for each of 2 years were mentored on aspects of leadership learned outside of the classroom, through discourse with women leaders of color, and diverse networking opportunities.
Dr. Wilson has served as a social worker, community organizer, manager and administrator in the public social service system in Maryland, then progressed to the Child Welfare League of America, in responsible positions including program director of kinship care and cultural competence, Mid-Atlantic regional director, and vice president for professional development and publications. She is a member of the CWLA Anti-Racism and Equity Committee and is proud to serve as a member of the CSWE Council on the Role and Status of Women in Higher Education.