SP2’s Dr. Desmond Patton to deliver keynote at SSWR conference with 40+ SP2-led sessions

Collaboration as innovation will be the theme of an address by Keynote Speaker Dr. Desmond Upton Patton of Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) at the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) 2025 Annual Conference in Seattle, Washington.

Dr. Patton, the Brian and Randi Schwartz University Professor, will speak at the SSWR Opening Plenary on January 16, 2025, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. PST, at an event to be presented in person and live streamed to registrants.

“At this conference, I’m excited to talk about collaboration as innovation,” says Dr. Patton. “The work that we do in social work science is some of the most groundbreaking and impactful work that we can be doing, particularly now in our society. And I’m thrilled to be a part of that conversation.”

A pioneer in the interdisciplinary fusion of social work, communications, and data science, Dr. Patton holds joint appointments at SP2 and the Annenberg School for Communication, along with a secondary appointment in the department of psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine. In 2023 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in health and medicine.

Known for his groundbreaking research about how communities constructed online can influence often harmful behavior offline, Dr. Patton recently coauthored a Section on Race, Racism, and Digital Media in the Handbook of Children and Screens and became SP2’s representative on the executive committee of Penn’s new Center for Media, Technology, and Democracy.  His roles at Penn also include chief strategy officer at SP2, faculty director of the Penn Center for Inclusive Innovation & Technology at SP2, and director of SAFELab at the Annenberg School and SP2.

At the SSWR Annual Conference, nearly forty SP2 faculty, students, researchers, and staff will contribute to more than forty sessions from Thursday, January 16, through Sunday, January 19, as presenting authors, coauthors, speakers, presenters, conveners, and discussants.

The sessions address an array of issues related to physical, mental, and financial health, particularly for marginalized populations, with consideration of systemic, historical, cultural, and professional contexts, as well as the roles of data and technology.

Dedicated to the advancement of social work research, SSWR is made up of more than 1,900 members representing 45 states, 15 countries, and more than 200 universities and institutions. The SSWR Annual Conference includes over 500 symposia, workshop, roundtable, paper, and poster presentations.

The list below highlights SP2-affiliated participants from the full SSWR schedule. To request an addition to the list, please contact sp2news@sp2.upenn.edu.

SP2 @ SSWR 2025

THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2025

8:00 AM-10:00 AM PST

All the things I never learned in graduate school: How not to bomb on your faculty job search

Yoosun Park, PhD, Associate Professor, and Tamara Cadet, PhD, Associate Professor

1:30 PM-3:00 PM PST

Interrogating Carceral Logics with Abolition Geography: A Place-Based Case Study Approach in Social Work and Social Policy Education

Noor Toraif, PhD, Assistant Professor

Resettlement Stress Among Emerging and Middle Adult Refugees from Burma: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Alexander Bervik, MSW, Doctoral Candidate

Humanitarian Protection, Social Welfare, and the Reception Experiences of Forced Migrants

Anna Ferris, MSW, Doctoral Student

Alexander Bervik, MSW, Doctoral Candidate

Reintegration of Street-Connected Children & Youth in Kenya: Evaluation of Agape Children’s Ministry’s Family Strengthening Program

Johanna Greeson, PhD, MSS, MLSP, Associate Professor

John Gyourko, MSW, Research Fellow & PhD Candidate

Sarah Wasch, MSW, Program Manager

Assessing the Acceptability of Implementing the Cost Screener As a Diagnostic Tool in Routine Clinical Practice Among Low Income, Racially Diverse Patients

Chelsea K. Brown, MSW, Doctoral Student

Meredith Doherty, PhD, Assistant Professor

Jessica Jacoby, MA, Senior Research Coordinator

Chiu Yi Tan, MSW, Doctoral Student

Tamara Cadet, PhD, Associate Professor

Isolation and Connection of Emerging Adults with Rare, Genetic Disease: “We All Have Life Sentences and Mine Is Li-Fraumeni Syndrome”

Isabelle Kim, MSW, PhD Student

Allison Werner-Lin, PhD, Associate Professor

Charlotte Masters, MSW Student

Eva Steele, MSW Student

Immigrant Adults’ Use of Telehealth during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from the 2020-2021 National Health Interview Survey

Joonhyeog Park, PhD Student

3:15 PM-4:45 PM PST

Innovative Methods for Using National Violent Death Reporting System Data to Investigate Intimate Partner Violence-Related Homicides and Suicides

Millan AbiNader, PhD, MSW, Assistant Professor

5:00 PM-6:30 PM PST

Opening Plenary [presented in person and live streamed]

Desmond Patton, PhD, MSW, Brian and Randi Schwartz University Professor

FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2024

7:00 AM-8:00 AM PST

Universal Basic Income and Guaranteed Income Policies and Research

Amy Castro, PhD, and Stacia West, PhD, Founding Directors, Center for Guaranteed Income Research

8:00 AM-9:30 AM PST

Internet-Based Microaggressions, Mental Health, and Stress: Instrument Validation and Analysis

Noor Toraif, PhD, Assistant Professor

Special Session: JSSWR

Tamara Cadet, PhD, Associate Professor

Interdisciplinary Interventions to Address Medical Financial Hardship across the Healthcare System: A Social Ecological Approach

Meredith Doherty, PhD, Assistant Professor

Interpetme: Community-Centered Approach to Address Racial Bias in Social Media Content Interpretation

Siva Mathiyazhagan, PhD, Research Assistant Professor

Desmond Patton, PhD, Brian and Randi Schwartz University Professor

“the Archive” As a Media Technology: Applying Interdisciplinary Methods to Historical Phenomena

Julian Quiros, MSSP, PhD Candidate

Mobilizing Organizational Archives to Build an Anti-Racist Future: An Methodological Exploration

Yoosun Park, PhD, Associate Professor

9:45 AM-11:15 AM PST

For the Protection of Society from the “Dependent, Defective, and Delinquent Classes”: An Historical Examination of Carceral Logics in the Development of Professional Social Work, 1874-1925

Yoosun Park, PhD, Associate Professor

Alicia Chatterjee, MSEd, MSW, Doctoral Candidate

Sam Bello, BA, Student

“Knowing My Own History [Helps Me] Recognize That Abuse Is Not like, Uniquely Asian or Ethnic”

SuMing Sullivan, MSW, Doctoral Student, Clinical Social Worker

Yoosun Park, PhD, Associate Professor

Investigating Correlations between Cultural Values and Caregiver Support As Perceived By Latine Transgender Young Adults

Norah Covarrubias, MSW, LCSW, Doctorate of Clinical Social Work Candidate

12:30 PM-1:30 PM PST

Research and Advocacy for Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Communities

Jessica Cho Kim, LCSW, PhD Student

The LGBTQ Caucus of Social Work Students & Faculty

Ari Gzesh, MSW, PhD Student

3:45 PM-5:15 PM PST

Racial Disparities in Telehealth Utilization and Health Outcomes Among Older Adults: Evidence from National Health Interview Survey

Joonhyeog Park, PhD Student

“Well, I Think It’s Institutional Racism:” How Pediatric Dialysis and Transplant Social Workers Explain Racial Disparities in Kidney Transplant Access

Kristin Stockard, DSW, Doctoral Student

Tamara Cadet, PhD, Associate Professor

The Preliminary Impact of a Cancer-Specific Financial Navigation Intervention Program across Age Groups

Chiu Yi Tan, MSW, Doctoral Student

Jessica Jacoby, MA, Senior Research Coordinator

Meredith Doherty, PhD, Assistant Professor

Indigenous and LGBTQ+ Coalition Formation for the Child Welfare Policy Rule-Making Process: A Thematic Analysis Using an Advocacy Coalition Policy Framework

Abram Lyons, MSW, Doctoral Student

5:30 PM-7:00 PM PST

Social Survey Sampling Methodology for Policy and Practice Implementation: Results and Lessons from the Philadelphia Economic Equity Project

Julian Quiros, MSSP, PhD Candidate

Candice Dias, PhD, Project Director & Research Scientist, Philadelphia Economic Equity Project

Daniel Miller, PhD, Research Director, Partnership for Social and Economic Mobility

SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 2025

8:00 AM-9:30 AM PST

The Limits of Trauma in the Work of Liberation: Surfacing Race and Gender in the History of Trauma 1860-1925

Alicia Chatterjee, MSEd, MSW, Doctoral Candidate

Yoosun Park, PhD, Associate Professor

Understanding Psychosocial and Behavioral Constructs Related to PrEP Interest Among Trans-Masculine People Assigned Female at Birth

Ari Gzesh, MSW, Doctoral Student

9:45 AM-11:15 AM PST

The American Guaranteed Income Studies: Impact of Guaranteed Income on Children and Families

Stacia West, PhD, Founding Director, Center for Guaranteed Income Research

Two-Generation Impacts of Guaranteed Income in Cambridge, MA

Elizabeth DeYoung, PhD, Research Scientist

Nidhi Tandon, MS, MPhil, Data Scientist

Stacia West, PhD, Founding Director, Center for Guaranteed Income Research

Amy Castro, PhD, Founding Director, Center for Guaranteed Income Research

Jesse Golinkoff, MPH, Research Scientist

Abram Lyons, MSW, Doctoral Student

A Bit of Light in That Tunnel of Darkness: Guaranteed Income for Nonresident Fathers

Alexander Bervik, MSW, Doctoral Candidate

Abram Lyons, MSW, Doctoral Student

Amy Castro, PhD, Founding Director, Center for Guaranteed Income Research

Stacia West, PhD, Founding Director, Center for Guaranteed Income Research

Population Level Surveillance of Domestic Violence Using the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS)

Millan AbiNader, PhD, MSW, Assistant Professor

Yoosun Park, PhD, Associate Professor

Preventing Youth Suicide By Improving Care: Adapting the Family-Based Crisis Intervention for Use in Inpatient Psychiatric Settings

Ijun Hong, MSW, Doctoral Student

Abigail Ross, PhD, MPH, MSW, Associate Professor

The Impact of Guaranteed Income in Los Angeles: Helping Low-Income Families Provide Safer and More Enriching Environment for Their Children

Amy Castro, PhD, Founding Director, Center for Guaranteed Income Research

Nidhi Tandon, MS, MPhil, Data Scientist

Stacia West, PhD, Founding Director, Center for Guaranteed Income Research

Using a Social Ecological Perspective to Examine Medication Adherence Among Persons with Severe Mental Illness: A Randomized Factorial Design

Phyllis Solomon, PhD, Professor

Between Oath and Legislation: Navigating Bioethical Dilemmas in Gender-Affirming Care amidst Anti-Transgender Legislation

Ari Gzesh, MSW, Doctoral Student

Leveraging Implementation Science to Expand Suicide Prevention to Primary Care

Abigail Ross, PhD, MPH, MSW, Associate Professor

SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2024

9:45 AM-11:15 AM PST

Trans-Affirming Care: The Role of Social Work Research and Practice

Ari Gzesh, MSW, PhD Student

“Keep Everything, Except the Jail:” Dually-Involved Youth and Young Adults’ Experiences of Reactive Social Safety Nets across the Child Welfare to Juvenile Legal Continuum

Noor Toraif, PhD, Assistant Professor

11:30 AM-1:00 PM PST

Occupational Closure within the Social Work Field: Examining the Effect of Social Work Licensure on Social Workers from Racial Minorities

Jung Ho Choi, PhD Student

Community Advisory Committees in the Social Service Sector: Challenges and Opportunities for Meaningful Community Engagement

Noor Toraif, PhD, Assistant Professor