Faculty & Staff

Meet the Social Work Team

Carolyn McAllister, Ph.D., M.S.W.

Michigan State University

Title: Director of School of Social Work | Professor

Interests: Social work practice with individuals with disabilities and their support systems, integrating disability content into social work education, transition issues for adolescents with disabilities and their families, and teaching with technology, alternate forms of instruction.

Tenure-Line Faculty

Thomas D. Davis, Ph.D.

University of Washington

Title: Professor

Interests: Substance abuse treatment, macro social work practice, research methods, and healthcare among Native Americans.

Laurie A. Smith, Ph.D.

University of California, Los Angeles

Title: Professor

Interests: AIDS prevention and services, foster youth, technology in teaching, service learning.

Yawen Li, Ph.D., M.S.W.

University of California, Los Angeles

Title: Professor

Interests: Social determinants of health and health behaviors, Self-management of chronic illness, home and community based long-term care services, minority older adults

Armando Barragán, Ph.D., M.S.W.

University of Southern California

Title: Associate Professor

Interests: Latino mental health, serious mental illnesses, treatment utilization and help-seeking, ethnic minority mental health disparities, and psychiatric epidemiology

Rigaud Joseph, Ph.D

Florida International University

Title: Assistant Professor

Interests: Poverty and social welfare policies, economic self-sufficiency among low-income families, evaluation of program effectiveness, children and youth well-being, theory and scale development, empowerment practice, and social advocacy.

Deirdre Lanesskog, Ph.D., M.P.A.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Title: Assistant Professor

Interests: Interests: Human service organizations & administration, human services work with immigrant clients, macro social work practice, immigration & social welfare policy, qualitative human services research

Caroline Lim, Ph.D., M.S.W

University of Southern California

Title: Assistant Professor

Interests: Clinical outcomes of schizophrenia; ethnic and racial disparities in mental health service use and outcomes; early intervention and prevention of schizophrenia and other psychoses; psychosis risk in vulnerable populations; quantitative research

Herbert Shon , Ph.D., LCSW

University of California, Los Angeles

Title: Assistant Professor

Interests: Developing strategies that reduce barriers to accessing services among hard-to-reach populations, integrating technology into social work courses, caregiving and Alzheimer's disease.

Full-time Faculty

Rachel Allinson, M.S.W., LCSW

Ohio State University

Title: Director of Field Education | Full-time Lecturer

Interests: Social work education, supervision of pre-licensed social workers and students, forensic issues, severe and persistent mental illness, discharge planning and community integration, and micro practice.

Shyra Harris, M.S.W., LCSW

California State University, San Bernardino

Title: Pathway Distance Education M.S.W. Field Coordinator | Full-time Lecturer

Interests: High risk child welfare and juvenile probation, forensic issues, severe and persistent mental illness, discharge planning and community integration, medical social work, and micro practice.

Jeannine Meza, M.S.W.

University of Southern California

Title: Advanced Standing Program Field Coordinator | Part-time Lecturer

Interests: Social Work education, field education, supervision and leadership, child welfare, child and adolescent mental health, school social work, DEIPAR (diversity, equity, inclusion, power analysis, antiracism).

Nick Watson, M.S.W.

San Diego State University

Title: BASW Program Director | Full-time Lecturer

Interests: Child welfare, high risk youth, health policy and substance abuse.

Melinda Corral, M.S.W.

California State University, San Bernardino

Title: Child Welfare Outreach and Admissions Specialist

Interests: Program development, Non-Profit Management, Child Abuse prevention, Mental Health & Well-being, At-Risk Child Welfare, Community Engagement, and Grant Writing

Susan Culbertson, M.S.W.

San Diego State University

Title: Title IV-E Project Coordinator

Interests: Child abuse and neglect, domestic and intimate partner violence, public child welfare policy and procedure, safety and risk assessment in CWS, case management.

Stephanie Schneider, M.S.W.

California State University, San Bernardino

Title: Child Welfare Specialist and Title IV-E Field Support

Interests: Child welfare, child abuse and neglect, technological innovation in social work practice, increasing technological self-efficacy in child protection work, organizational culture and policy.