GCSW Fellowship Awardees

GRAND CHALLENGE: BUILD FINANCIAL CAPABILITY AND ASSETS FOR ALL

Emmanuel Amoako – “Developing a Just-in-Time Financial Guidance Intervention for Incarcerated Youth: A User-Centered Design Approach”

Emmanuel (he/him/his) is a PhD student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work and Sociology from the University of Ghana and an MSW from Washington University in St. Louis, where he concentrated in research and social and economic development. His research focuses on factors that promote the economic security and well-being of incarcerated individuals as they transition back into community life.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: ADVANCE LONG AND PRODUCTIVE LIVES

Bruna Cardoso Lopez – “Retirement Contributions of Undocumented Immigrants Across Diverse U.S. Policies”

Bruna Cardoso Lopez, MSW, is a dedicated social work scholar and practitioner currently pursuing a PhD at Boston College School of Social Work, with research interests spanning gerontology, immigration, and financial capability. After earning her MSW from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Bruna gained five years of experience in both clinical and macro roles, including hospice social work, bereavement coordination, and supporting immigrants and refugees through the International Rescue Committee, where she supervised MSW interns and coordinated employment for Afghan arrivals. Her professional journey has fueled a passion for unveiling the economic and health disparities associated with immigration legal status, particularly among older adults. Bruna’s work is deeply informed by her personal and professional encounters with immigrant communities, driving her to explore national outcomes utilizing datasets such as the Current Population Survey (CPS). She is also one of the recipients of the 2024–2025 Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW) Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, which recognizes her commitment to advancing equity and economic security for older adults.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: CLOSE THE HEALTH GAP

Sarah Cooper – “Neighborhood Level Factors and Variation in Total and Non-Fatal Overdose Rates by Race and Ethnicity”

Sarah (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the Rutgers University School of Social Work, from which she also received an MSW. Her research interests focus broadly on addiction and ways to mitigate harm stemming from substance use both at the individual and community level. More specifically, her research explores neighborhood factors that are associated with both fatal and non-fatal overdose to help identify neighborhoods with high levels of overdose deaths to better target funding and services.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: ENSURE HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL YOUTH

Linyun Fu – “Exploring the Dynamics of a Culturally Sensitive School-Based Social-Emotional Learning Program for Rural Chinese Children: Evaluating Effectiveness, Mediators, and Moderators”

Linyun Fu is a Ph.D. candidate at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. She received her Master of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis and her Bachelor of Social Work from China Youth University of Political Studies. As a first-generation college student from a rural village in China, Linyun is dedicated to developing and evaluating culturally sensitive prevention and intervention strategies for marginalized children. Her research focuses on examining culturally tailored Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs for minoritized children, as well as SEL programs designed for adults—including teachers and caregivers—to better support child development. She is also passionate about exploring multi-system resilience mechanisms that promote the well-being of vulnerable children. She is currently engaged in several research projects aimed at understanding the effectiveness of mental health prevention strategies for marginalized children across diverse cultural contexts, including China, Azerbaijan, and the United States.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: CREATE SOCIAL RESPONSES TO A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

Babu Gounder – “Wildfires and Disability Communities: Geospatial and Macro Analysis to Advance Policies for Climate and Disaster Resilience”

Babu Gounder is pursuing a PhD in Social Work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He researches community well-being with a focus on neighborhood environments, climate disasters, and public health. Using spatial data science, policy analysis, and community-centered approaches, Babu identifies opportunities to improve health outcomes and advance environmental health and disaster resilience. His research appears in peer-reviewed journals, including first-authored articles in Critical Social Policy and the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research. Babu has been selected as a Doctoral Scholar at the Center for Social Development at Washington University-St. Louis, a Council for Social Work Education Doctoral Student Policy Fellow, and an SDOH & Place Fellow at the Healthy Regions & Policies Lab at UIUC. He is also a recipient of the University YMCA Fred S. Bailey Fellowship for Community Leadership. Babu’s dissertation, Wildfires and Disability Communities: Geospatial and Macro Analysis to Advance Policies for Climate and Disaster Resilience, aims to contribute implications for policies to strengthen resources and capacities for populations with a disability in the face of growing wildfires in the U.S.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: REDUCE EXTREME ECONOMIC INEQUALITY

Anna Ko – “Buffering Against Economic Shocks: The Role of UI in Promoting Equity in Parental Investments and Child Development”

Anna (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a research assistant at the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP). Her research explores how sociodemographic characteristics and public policies—particularly anti-poverty and work-family policies—shape parental investment and influence child and family well-being. She is especially interested in the interplay of family structure, economic resources, and parenting in children’s development, with a focus on marginalized populations. Her work also examines child maltreatment outcomes and contributes to studies on child welfare systems. Through policy-oriented research, she aims to inform programs that strengthen families and support long-term child well-being.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE

Olga Koumoundouros – “Supportive Adult Relationships and PTSD Mitigation in Youth Experiencing Homelessness and Firearm Exposure: A Mixed Methods Study”

Olga Koumoundouros is a PhD candidate at USC’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, with a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Vermont and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Koumoundouros’ work explores how positive relationships with supportive adults, whether agency staff or non-staff positive adults, can help mitigate PTSD symptoms among young people experiencing homelessness. Her dissertation focuses specifically on young people with firearm experiences and exposure to gun violence, asking if these relationships serve as protective factors in the context of compounded trauma while living unstably housed. Passionate about community engagement, Olga centers a process of meaningful, two-way collaboration with youth, service providers, and local communities to co-create supportive programs and policies that expand young people’s access to the resources they need for full and thriving lives. Koumoundouros’ broader research interests include strengthening the evidence base for community-driven violence intervention practices, advancing community-based violence prevention strategies with youth, housing equity policies, and topics including housing first, and guaranteed basic income as pathways to individual and community well-being. She is also committed to participatory action research, survivor-centered frameworks, trauma-informed, and arts-based healing methodologies.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: ACHIEVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND JUSTICE

Pixie Popplewell – “The Library Learning Rainbow: Combating the Information Jungle for Queer Individuals with Community Knowledge and Third Spaces”

Pixie Popplewell (they/fae) is a DSW candidate at the University of Southern California and holds a BA in Psychology and Human Services from William Penn University and received their MSW from California State University, Sacramento. Pixie is an Intersex, Lebanese, Genderqueer, and hard of hearing parent with lived experience of homelessness, domestic violence, sexual assault, mental illness, neurodivergence, obesity, and cancer. They utilize their experiences and identities as a foundation to ground in faer values to be kind, be curious, value joy, and commit to growth. Fae are the Project Director of the California Homeless Youth Project, a research and policy-based initiative of the California Research Bureau, creating the state’s first integrative data hub on the current state of youth homelessness. They strive to strategically integrate their lived expertise, education, and professional experience to contribute to a future where regardless of the variety of opportunities available, there is an acceptable baseline of life outcome that promotes everyone’s ability to thrive.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: PROMOTE SMART DECARCERATION

Sarah Porter – “Reimagining Behavioral Crisis Systems Through Peer-led Workforce Development”

Sarah (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington. She holds an MSW from the University of Washington and an MHS in Public Mental Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research is grounded in critical suicidology and focuses on transforming behavioral crisis response systems through community-based and participatory methods. Drawing on her clinical social work background in street medicine and inpatient psychiatry, Sarah integrates policy analysis with practice-based insights to inform systems change. Her dissertation, Reimagining Behavioral Crisis Systems Through Peer-led Workforce Development, explores workforce priorities among peer support specialists as behavioral crisis services rapidly evolve and expand under federal- and state-level 988 legislation. Her work to elevate voluntary, culturally resonant alternatives to police and involuntary treatment in behavioral crisis interventions is guided by, and accountable to, a community mentor committee and partnerships with peer support specialists.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: HARNESS TECHNOLOGY FOR SOCIAL GOOD

Shannon Power – “Towards Health Equity through Technology-Based Dementia Care Navigation”

Shannon Power is a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia, where she previously earned her BSW and MSW. She pursues health equity at the heart of her research into dementia care navigation, focusing on disparities in rural and medically under-served communities. Drawing on her experience as a licensed clinical palliative care social worker, Shannon explores digital innovations to strengthen care management systems. She values interdisciplinary collaboration and partners closely with the Cognitive Aging Research and Education (CARE) Center through the UGA Institute of Gerontology. She is a Pre-Dissertation Fellow and active member of the student ad-hoc committee for the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW). Shannon is committed to an academic career rooted in action-oriented teaching and community-engaged research.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: BUILD HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS

Elizabeth Sanchez – “Luchando Todos los Días: Examining the Multidimensional Resistance, Well-being, and Healing of Latine Undocumented, Mixed-Status, and Immigrant Families”

Elizabeth Sanchez is a community-engaged PhD candidate at the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Elizabeth identifies as a Chicana, first-generation college student, lifelong learner, and a proud daughter of Mexican immigrants. Elizabeth is passionate about the intersection of immigration policy, Latine mental health, undocumented immigrant well-being, and critical Chicana feminist epistemologies and methods. Rooted in Chicana feminist epistemologies, Elizabeth’s community-engaged work honors ground-up testimonios and pláticas with Latine undocumented and mixed-status immigrant families who endure and resist immigration-inflicted state violence. Ground-up, community-engaged, and participatory action research informs her work. Elizabeth’s research is informed by her past clinical experience providing culturally attuned and non-Western therapeutic support, program development, mental health consultation, and trauma-informed advocacy with undocumented immigrant families in the U.S. and in México. She has zealously championed for the holistic well-being of Central American unaccompanied immigrant children. She aims to amplify the dignified voices and experiences of undocumented families. Elizabeth received her bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Chicane/Latine Studies from UC Irvine and her master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Chicago.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: ELIMINATE RACISM

Johara Suleiman – “Stories of Somali motherhood: Uncovering the impacts of U.S. child protection services on Somali mothers’ self-understandings”

Johara Suleiman is a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota’s School of Social Work. Her dissertation research examines the child welfare system as a site of racialization, and, using an oral history methodology, investigates its impacts on Muslim, African, immigrant mothers. While working on her dissertation, Johara continues to see therapy clients and works as an adjunct professor. After receiving her MSW from Salem State University in 2016, Johara worked as an intensive in-home family therapist until 2020 when she opened her private therapy practice. During her time as an in-home family therapist, she worked primarily toward family preservation and healing, and noticed her work often resisting macro-level dangers and barriers to wellness. The lessons she learned, relationships she built, and work she did alongside those families are what motivated her to pursue her PhD. She hopes to continue supporting the communities she’s connected to through her future research.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: END HOMELESSNESS

Nora Sullivan – “Faith and Housing First: A Multi-Method Examination of Federally Funded, Faith-Based Organizations Operating Housing First Programs”

Nora Sullivan, MDiv, MSW is a PhD candidate in social work at Rutgers University, researching faith-based efforts to address homelessness. For over 8 years Nora has been working in both direct service and research capacities towards a world where people experiencing homelessness and people who use drugs can thrive. Her recent projects include community-based efforts towards overdose prevention, addressing the intersection of healthcare and homelessness, and palliative care in unhoused communities. Her dissertation focuses on​ federally funded, faith-based organizations providing Housing First services.

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GRAND CHALLENGE: ERADICATE SOCIAL ISOLATION

Ya-Li Yang – “How Families Develop Resilience Through Communication in the Context of Supporting a Loved One in Recovery: A Mixed-Methods Study”

Ya-Li Yang is a third-year doctoral student at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work. Her research focuses on alcohol and substance use, family dynamics, recovery capital, and the social and cultural factors that influence recovery. Her dissertation examines how family communication shapes support and resilience, and how external factors such as stigma affect this process for families navigating substance use recovery. She is currently involved in research on collegiate recovery programs across the U.S. and Canada and is collaborating with a Richmond-based family recovery organization to evaluate a documentary aimed at helping families better understand and support their loved ones’ recovery journeys. Yang’s nearly ten years of clinical experience in psychiatric hospital settings in Taiwan deeply inform her research. She worked with individuals and families affected by mental health and substance use disorders, where she observed how family communication can either facilitate or hinder recovery. She also noted how social isolation among family members can negatively impact internal family interactions. In addition to clinical work, Yang contributed to program evaluations of family support groups and youth substance use prevention initiatives. These experiences continue to guide her commitment to research that supports recovery and reduces stigma. Yang received her B.A. in Chinese Literature and Social Welfare from National Chung Cheng University in Taiwan and her M.S.W. from Syracuse University, where she concentrated on work with individuals, families, and groups.

 

GCSW Honorable Mentions

GRAND CHALLENGE: HARNESS TECHNOLOGY FOR SOCIAL GOOD

Cheryl Aguilar, Smith College

GRAND CHALLENGE: END HOMELESSNESS

Jamie Borgan, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

GRAND CHALLENGE: END HOMELESSNESS

Maiya Hotchkiss, University of Southern California

GRAND CHALLENGE: ADVANCE LONG AND PRODUCTIVE LIVES

Elizabeth Dawn Jacobs-Ware, University of Southern California

GRAND CHALLENGE: ERADICATE SOCIAL ISOLATION

Jeesoo Jung, University at Albany, State University of New York

GRAND CHALLENGE: HARNESS TECHNOLOGY FOR SOCIAL GOOD

Andrew Kim, Rutgers University

GRAND CHALLENGE: PROMOTE SMART DECARCERATION

Mariah Cowell Mercier, University of Utah

GRAND CHALLENGE: CREATE SOCIAL RESPONSES TO A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

Nadia Neimanas, Arizona State University

GRAND CHALLENGE: PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE

Monte-Angel Richardson, University of Toronto

GRAND CHALLENGE: ERADICATE SOCIAL ISOLATION

Eric Schade, Simmons University

GRAND CHALLENGE: CREATE SOCIAL RESPONSES TO A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

Sanop Valappanadi, Florida State University

GRAND CHALLENGE: REDUCE EXTREME ECONOMIC INEQUALITY

Resha Swanson Varner, University of Chicago

GRAND CHALLENGE: ACHIEVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND JUSTICE

Lea Vugic, Boston University

GRAND CHALLENGE: BUILD FINANCIAL CAPABILITY AND ASSETS FOR ALL

Haotian Zheng, Washington University in St. Louis