Associate Professor Reuben Jonathan Miller talks with Doctoral Candidate Lester J. Kern about the Crown Family School’s Doctoral Program. They also discuss Lester’s research, his experiences in completing his dissertation, and their collaboration as mentor and mentee. If you are interested in learning more about our Doctoral (or Master's) programs and the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice, please visit crownschool.uchicago.edu.

In this episode, Crown Family School Associate Professor Alida Bouris is joined by Ertharin Cousin for a conversation about the challenges and opportunities in the field of global health and development. Bouris's research is broadly focused on the relationship between social context and health, with a particular emphasis on understanding how social inequality, social networks, and social support shape the health and well-being of historically excluded and marginalized youth and adult populations. Cousin is the CEO and Managing Director of Food Systems for the Future. She led the United Nations World Food Program from 2012 until 2017.

This conversation was held during the recent launch of the Susan and Richard Kiphart Center for Global Health and Social Development. Housed in the Crown Family School, the Kiphart Center will build on the University of Chicago's global health efforts. The Center aims to further integrate multidisciplinary expertise and expand collaborations to promote community health and well-being in communities around the world. To learn more about the Crown Family School and the Kiphart Center visit us at crownschool.uchicago.edu.

Crown Family School Assistant Professor Eve L. Ewing and her guest, Jonathan Collins, Assistant Professor of Education and International and Public Affairs at Brown University, discuss public meetings and how we can reshape democratic spaces. They specifically discuss school board meetings, and how these can become more accessible and empowering for all people in a democracy. Visit our website for more info about the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.

Associate Professor Nicole Marwell and alumna Monica Meriweather, AM '21, discuss the Crown Family School’s Master's Degree in Social Sector Leadership and Nonprofit Management (SSL). They explore Meriweather’s background, why she chose the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, her experiences in the classroom, and what she has learned from the SSL Program. To learn more about our School and how to apply, visit our website.

Associate Professor Nicole Marwell and alumna Evelyn Diaz, AM '98, President of the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, discuss the University of Chicago Crown Family School’s Master's Degree in Social Sector Leadership and Nonprofit Management. They also explore Diaz’s experiences in the social sector, what skills are needed for a person to succeed as a leader in the social sector, and how a degree from the Crown Family School's Social Sector Leadership and Nonprofit Management program can help develop those skills. Visit the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice for more information:  https://crownschool.uchicago.edu/ssl

Harold Pollack, the Crown Family School’s Helen Ross Professor and Thomas J. Dart, Cook County, (IL) Sheriff discuss what Sheriff Dart has learned about policing and mental and behavioral health, the co-responder model, and how he has enhanced the co-responder model to combine the use of tablets with Crisis Intervention Training. They also talk about how social work and policing can learn from one another to help keep everyone in the community safe. Music by Augusta Read Thomas, UChicago University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music and the College. Visit the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at https://crownschool.uchicago.edu/

Gina Miranda Samuels and Kelly Faye Jackson are two social work academics who are also black multiracial. They discuss their book, Multiracial Cultural Attunement, and the enduring challenges of publishing scholarship about mixed race persons and families within social work, where “race” is often treated as an uncontested, fixed, and singular status or identity. Samuels (UChicago Crown Family School) and Jackson (ASU-SW) will introduce and define monoracism and moncentricity and explore social constructions of race and mixed race rooted in white supremacy. Listeners will hear about their own life experiences, how mixed-race people and families are “erased” or pathologized both in society and academic research, and how data on mixed race people is gathered, displayed, and used – or not used. Finally, they pose a challenge to the social work profession:  that preparing the next generation of social workers to dismantle systems of racism requires disrupting the monoracism within our field’s engagement of race in research, theory, and practice. Motown the dog makes a cameo appearance. Music by Augusta Read Thomas, UChicago University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music and the College. Visit the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at https://crownschool.uchicago.edu/