VCU School of Social Work

Ph.D. candidate Samson B. Chama successfully defended his dissertation, Program Approach for Child Headed Households in Zambia in late august and is now anxiously awaiting his December graduation.

Three more doctoral students will defend their dissertations in the coming weeks, also in preparation for December graduation. We commend Chama, Amy, Trenette and Soon Min for their pursuit of excellence throughout their academic endeavor. Faculty and doctoral students are invited to attend the defenses in support of our Ph.D. candidates.

Amy Waldbillig

November 18, 2008, 1:00 – 3:00 P.M., Raleigh 101

“Implementation of PRIDE in Virginia: An Examination of Role Perception Among Foster Parents and Foster Care Workers”

Trenette T. Clark

December 3, 2008, 9:00 – 11:00 A.M., Raleigh 230

“Pathways to Drug Use Among Rural and Urban African American Adolescents: The Mediating and Moderating Effects of Parent and Peer Influences”

Soon Min Lee

December 8, 2008, 1:00 – 3:00 P.M., Raleigh 101

“Asian American Social Workers: Exploring Relationships Among Factors Influencing Career Choices”

Congratulations are in order for two of our doctoral candidates, Hsing-Jung Chen and Em Parente, who recently defended their dissertation proposals and are now on to IRB and data collection or analysis.

Hsing-Jung defended yesterday a proposal titled, Robust protective factors that help youths achieve positive adjustment despite environmental risks. Pam Kovacs is chairing the dissertation with the support of Pat Dattalo and Sarah Kye Price in the School and outside member, Dr. Gene Brody, founder of the Center for Family Research at the University of Georgia. Dr. Brody was able to be with us in person yesterday and indeed, Hsing-Jung is doing a secondary data analysis using data from his center.

Em defended on October 10th a proposal titled, Experience of supervision scale: The development of an instrument to measure child welfare workers’ supervisory experiences. Pat Dattalo is chairing the dissertation with support of Mary Secret and Jenny Jones in the School and outside member and close friend of the School, Janet Hutchinson, from the Wilder School. Em’s dissertation is one of the few in the history of the School that is about the development of an original measurement device.