ACOSA Awards

Recipient: Robert Fisher, University of Connecticut
Professor

Nominators: Steve Burghardt and Terry Mizrahi, Hunter College

Throughout Robert Fisher’s 50-year career in academia, he has maintained a high standard of achievement in both quantity and quality of research and scholarship, teaching, and service to the school, university, community, and profession while also engaging with the larger struggle for economic, political, and social democracy. He has published eight books and more than 75 articles, been awarded three Fulbright-Hays Scholar Awards (which is very uncommon and perhaps unique in social work), numerous grants which enabled him to study further and develop new community-based research. His commitment to community organizing has served as the framework for his teaching and research throughout his career, beginning at a junior college before moving on to serve with distinction at the University of Houston for more than a decade and at the University of Connecticut for over 20 years. At the University of Connecticut, he developed an undergraduate major in community studies and taught MSW and PhD courses as well as continues to chair the CO concentration for more than 10 years.  All of this resulted in a sustained national and international reputation in the interdisciplinary social sciences and a unique contribution to social work.

Emerging Scholar Award

This award honors the contribution of a person in the field who has demonstrated outstanding scholarly potential in an area of community practice.

Recipient: Mónica Gutiérrez, University of Denver
Assistant Professor

Nominator: Cheryl Hyde, Temple University

Dr. Gutiérrez focuses on policies that result in neighborhood displacement and gentrification with particular attention to the impact on Latinx communities. Using community-engaged methods with the application of Critical Race and Latino Critical Race theories, she documents the complex historical roots and contemporary manifestations of gentrification on community health and well-being. Further, by focusing on Latinx communities, she expands the racialized understandings of reasons for and consequences of displacement. As a qualitative methodologist adept as photovoice, ethnography, community mapping, and archival methods, Dr. Gutiérrez centers on and includes within her lines of inquiry the lived experiences of community members.

Outstanding Doctoral Student Award

This award honors a current doctoral student who is doing meritorious scholarship in the field of community practice.

Recipient: Nikita Buckhoy, Wayne State University

Nominator: Richard Smith, Wayne State University

Currently, Nikita Buckhoy, is a licensed macro social worker and serves as a field supervisor for Wayne State University's MSW program at Connect Detroit, an intermediary organization that provides interagency collaboration and coordination around youth development and food justice. The experiences working in the food system shaped her dissertation project. Food access is essential for addressing health disparities and similar forces shape issues around air quality and water quality.

Her dissertation has potential to contribute both in terms of the scholarly literature as well as social work macro practice. Nikita is extending the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) by applying it to local environmental justice planning. She is extending the ACF by introducing an intersectionality lens to learn what facilitates or obstructs local EJ policy. She will document the narratives that shape the urban imaginaries present in each case and how these imaginaries are used in advocacy. Thus, it will contribute to the policy process literature by centering intersectionality and race in particular in local EJ policy. Second, it will contribute to practice by informing advocacy around EJ in urban communities and how that ultimately impacts health.

 Outstanding Student Award

This award honors a BSW or MSW student or group of students who is doing outstanding community practice.

Individual Recipient: James Rawson, Michigan State University
MSW Student

Nominator: Kelley Blanck, Michigan State University

James Rawson is an exemplary student, with drive, tenacity and passion to excel. He has a passion for community practice and activism, and also recognizes the challenges presented by identifying them and creating plans for busting barriers.

His achievements include: the launch of a database focused on connecting Lansing area non-profits to for-profit charitable giving opportunities; formalizing a Macro Student Network chapter at MSU; and conducting outreach and relationship building with various community organizations that have agreed to help students learn and grow in community practice.

Student Group Recipient: Macro Social Work Student Network (MSWSN), Florida State University Chapter Shalay Jackson, Faculty Advisor

Nominators: Alberto Cifuentes, Jr., Kapria Lee, Becki Sander, and Tamarie Willis on behalf of the MSWSN Advisory Group

Under the mentorship of Dr. Shalay Jackson, FSU's social work students took the MSWSN mission and potential and ran with it! Formed in the 2020-2021 academic year, the Chapter has maintained a constant presence and purpose. Student leaders have created and implemented webinars relating to macro practice and webinars relating to justice issues. They have annually offered voter education events in the fall and visibility/education postings around social work month, Juneteenth, and support for LGBTQ+ community members. They are aware of and actively pursue community-building within FSU’s College of Social Work (CSW) hosting events such as a Lead Training Watch Event and partnering with CSW Ambassadors to host a study session and spring social.

Beyond their institution, the Chapter has played a leadership role with the National MSWSN. They have created and implemented two webinars for National MSWSN. They have highlighted the work of justice-making efforts CSW alums and organizations in their surrounding community. They have actively networked with other MSWSN chapter leaders and sponsored students to attend CRISP’s Student Advocacy Day.

Outstanding Practice Educator Award

This award honors a teacher, practicum supervisor, or practicum staff, who has made significant contributions to macro social work education.

Recipient: Melissa Singh, University of Southern California
Associate Teaching Professor

Nominator: Alexis Tsoukalas, Florida Policy Institute

Dr. Melissa Singh's commitment to excellence, macro practice, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has led to her rise at USC from adjunct faculty to associate professor of social work practicum education and her current appointment, as coordinator of online learning. She also taught at the University of Central Florida having thoughtfully and carefully converted her in-person classes to online versions, long before UCF even had an online degree program. This allowed students from non-traditional backgrounds, including returning students or part-time students who also worked, to pursue their education at one of the largest universities in the country.

Dr. Singh is also a long-time leader in the social work profession. She served as the NASW-FL Central Unit Vice Chair from 2015 to 2018. During this time Melissa developed a collaboration between the NASW-FL Central Unit and iSocialWork, which she co-founded, to win the 2016 Social Work Month Audio/Video Media campaign “How Do You Social Work?” She was elected as the Region VII representative for the National Committee on Nominations and Leadership Identification (NCNLI) to ensure that diverse social work students and professionals took an active role in NASW.

Beyond her passion for macro practice, racial equity has been at the center of Melissa’s personal and professional worldviews with her recent research continuing to highlight the importance of diverse social work faculty. Racial justice is also at the heart of Melissa’s service work, having been co-chair of CSWE’s Council on Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Diversity for several years and recently joined CSWE’s Commission on Diversity and Social and Economic Justice.

The Marie O. Weil Outstanding Scholarship Award

This award recognizes outstanding scholarship published in the Journal of Community Practice during the previous volume year. Authors are selected for their contribution to the field, scholarly approach, and/or promotion of macro practice values. Taylor and Francis, the journal publisher, co-sponsors this award.

Best Article in the Journal of Community Practice, Volume 30 (2022)

Presented to: Kristen Brock-Petroshius (SUNY Stonybrook) & Laura Wray-Lake (UCLA) for their article, "Organizing through stories: The role of emotions in increasing support for decarceration." VOL., 30 (1), 84-104. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2022.2033376 

In addition, two articles were selected for Honorable Mention:

“Let’s make space for young people to lead: Integrating research and action programming in an arts and technology center: Opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned.” Catalina Tang Yan, Da’Von McCune, Cody Clement-Sanders, Solomon Dixon, Tom Dreitlein, Mohamud Mohamed, Eric Muharareni, Craig J. McClay, & Linda S. Sprague Martinez. VOL. 30, NO. 1, 45-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2022.2033374

“Mutual aid using digital technology: A case study of virtual community organizing during the COVID-19 pandemic.” K.R. Wilson, O.M. Roskill, & J. Mahr. VOL. 30, NO. 3, 255-278. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2022.2102101

Thanks to the Marie Weil Award Committee: Michelle Livermore, Jason Sawyer, Odessa Gonzales Benson, and Bethany Womack.

All three articles are available for FREE ACCESS through October 2024.



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