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The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) is proud to announce the honorees for our annual Commissions and Councils Awards, which honor and celebrate social work scholars, students, and educators for their contributions to social work and social work education.

These awards will be presented at CSWE's Annual Conference in Denver from October 23 to 26. CSWE's commissions and councils are served by CSWE board members and volunteers, and each has a particular area of focus.

These are the 2025 awards and honorees:

Presented by the Council on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Expression (CSOGIE), the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression (SOGIE) Awardhonors excellence in scholarship that celebrates the lives of LGBTQIA+ individuals; promotes social justice, equity, and inclusion; and expands understanding of intersectional topics that affect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, sexual-expansive, gender-expansive, two-spirit, and all others under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, in social work education and practice. This year’s SOGIE winners are:

• Tyler M. Argüello, PhD, MSW, DCSW, LCSW: Dr. Argüello (he/él/they) is a scholar-activist-leader who has been a practicing social worker for over 30 years, primarily around community mental health, HIV, and 2LGBTQIANPK+ communities. He is a professor at California State University in Sacramento.
• Michael P. Dentato, PhD: Dr. Dentato is the associate dean for research and a professor in the School of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago (LUC/SSW). He is also co-director of the Center for Field Innovation, Research, Strategy, and Training (C-FIRST) at LUC/SSW. Dr. Dentato’s scholarship and research centers upon the assessment of health and health disparities among sexual and gender minority populations.
• Jennifer L. Kenney, PhD, MSW, MPH: Dr. Kenney is an associate professor at the California State University, Sacramento's School of Social Work. She teaches graduate-level classes in the areas of behavioral health, forensic social work, and social work with marginalized and vulnerable populations. Locally and internationally, Dr. Kenney facilitates various trainings within the community for mental health practitioners and volunteers related to trauma responsive care when working with system-impacted individuals and families, immigrants and refugees (most specifically from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran), and ICU patients and families.

Two-Spirit, Queer, and Trans People of Color (2-QTPOC) Award: Also presented by CSOGIE, the 2-QTPOC Award recognizes the significant teaching, practice, or service contributions of CSWE member(s) to 2-QTPOC in programs of social work practice. This year’s winner is Alex Washington, PhD, MSSW, MA. Dr. Washington is a professor and BASW Program Director in the College of Health and Human Services at California State University, Long Beach. He has provided outpatient treatment group therapy in the Department of Psychiatry at the VA Medical Center (Memphis). Dr. Washington’s research focuses on transgender health, and PrEP medication for HIV prevention among Black and Latinx sexual minority males (SMM); inconsistent reporting of sexual orientation and sexual behaviors among men who inject drugs; and HIV testing and sex risks among substance using Black and Latinx SMM.

Community Partnership Action Award: Presented by the Commission for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice, this award honors the contributions of schools and departments of social work and social work students (PhD, DSW, MSW, or BSW) in advancing community partnership action. "Community" is broadly defined as a self-organized network of people with a common agenda, cause, or interest and is not limited by physical location.

• This year’s Community Partnership Action Award for Programs goes to the University of Maryland School of Social Work (UM-SSW). Located in downtown Baltimore, UM-SSW is known for its deep community engagement through field placements and research. Unique to schools of social work, UM-SSW also provides direct services through its Center for Restorative Change (CRC). The CRC embodies social work’s transformative power by fostering meaningful and sustainable community partnerships. As a hub for community engagement, the CRC bridges academic institutions, local organizations, and the communities they serve to advance social justice through collaborative initiatives. It also serves as a field placement site, ensuring students gain hands-on experience addressing systemic challenges.
• The Community Partnership Action Award for Individuals goes to Ogechi Christine Kalu, MSW. Kalu is a Presidential Fellow, CSWE policy fellow, MacMargaret Education Grantee and PhD candidate at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. Her academic and professional journey is rooted in advancing social through research-practice-community partnerships. Ogechi’s work centers on family and community violence, trauma, and culturally responsive interventions for children and families. She is the founder of Teens Think Africa Initiative, a nonprofit in Nigeria addressing gender-based violence, adolescent trauma, and youth empowerment. Her initiatives have reached hundreds of girls through psychosocial support programs, school-based mentorship, and faith-based campaigns that engage clergy as informal supports for survivors.

The Council on the Role and Status of Women in Social Work Education presents five awards annually (all five award descriptions are at this link):

Community Impact Award: This award recognizes community practice, which shapes the process of social work education by exemplifying feminist leadership models. This year’s Community Impact Award goes to Mayra López-Humphreys, PhD, LMSW. Dr. Mayra López-Humphreys is an associate professor and interim chair of the Community Organizing Method at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, CUNY. A womanist Latine scholar-practitioner, her work bridges academia and community, centering participatory action research, peer mentoring, and transformative pedagogy to foster equity, healing, and systemic change.

Feminist Manuscript Award: This award recognizes manuscript authors who draw upon feminist and womanist theory, research methods, educational practices. This year’s Feminist Manuscript Award goes to Sameena Azhar, PhD, MPH, LCSW. Dr. Azhar is an associate professor at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. She has over two decades of clinical and research experience in the fields of mental health, addiction and HIV care. Guided by the lenses of critical race theory and postcolonial feminism, her research focuses on three main areas: (1) gender, HIV, and sex work; (2) race, health, and criminal legal involvement; and (3) social work practice with communities impacted by intersectional marginalization.

Student Feminist Manuscript Award: The Student Feminist Manuscript Award recognizes a MSW or BSW student who shows an understanding of, and dedication to, the feminisms as it pertains to social work theory, research, practice, policy, and education. The year’s Student Feminist Manuscript Award goes to Megan Fowler, MSW, ACSW. Fowler is a transformative change scholar, contemplative practitioner, cultural strategist, and healing-based educator whose work resides at the generative edges of eco-social work thought. Committed to reimagining social work as a field accountable to both human and more than-human worlds, Fowler is dedicated to amplifying practices and pathways that nurture the vitality, vision, and care needed to meet the complexities of global polycrisis, where interconnected crises threaten our social, political, and ecological systems. Their interdisciplinary scholarship draws from critical, decolonial, and queer eco-feminist theories, as well as contemplative wisdom traditions and planetary health discourse, to explore how embodiment and mind-body-spirit practices can catalyze individual and collective transformation.

Violence Against Women and Children Award: The Violence Against Women and Children Manuscript Award is awarded to authors whose work most advances feminist knowledge in the field of violence against women and children. The purpose of this award is to recognize outstanding scholarship of early career scholars working in the area of violence against women and children in social work education. The three winners of this year’s Violence Against Women and Children Award are:

• Kathryn Showalter, PhD: Dr. Showalter is an assistant professor in the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky. She conducted a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan and attended The Ohio State University for her doctorate education. Dr. Showalter is interested in the intersection of intimate partner violence and the employment stability. She has developed a technology inclusive measurement of IPV and abuser-initiated workplace disruptions to better understand how survivors in various sectors of employment suffer from abuse.
• Katherine Marçal, PhD, MSW: Dr. Marçal is as assistant professor in the School of Social Work at Rutgers University. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in social work from Washington University in St. Louis. Her research applies a systems science approach to investigating maternal mental health, child well-being, and family violence in housing insecure and homeless households, as well as strategies to prevent eviction and homelessness for vulnerable families with children.
• Mi Sun Choi, PhD: Dr. Choi is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Welfare at Silla University in Busan, South Korea. She earned her doctoral degree from the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on aging and work, intergenerational relations in the workplace, and employment among marginalized populations, including older adults and women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Dr. Choi is committed to developing inclusive and equitable approaches to workforce participation for vulnerable groups. Her work aims to understand the structural and psychosocial barriers these populations face in securing and maintaining employment.

Feminist Scholar Award: This award honors a scholar who advances feminist knowledge, including Womanist and Xicanism perspectives. This year’s Feminist Scholar Award goes to Denise McLane-Davison, PhD, AM. Dr. McLane-Davison is an award-winning Afrofuturistic womanist scholar, Professor, and Graduate Program Director at Toronto Metropolitan University in Ontario, Canada. A first-generation college graduate from Chicago’s South Side, she embodies the liberatory traditions of Black Feminist, Womanist, and Africana epistemologies. Her research spans womanist leadership, HIV/AIDS activism, health equity, and the preservation of Black social work history, including her work as former National Historian and Archivist for the National Association of Black Social Workers. As Chair of the Commission on Research and member of the Board of Directors for the Council on Social Work Education, Dr. McLane-Davison leads efforts to decolonize knowledge production and promote inclusive research infrastructures.

Council on Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Diversity (CRECD) Award: Presented by the CRECD, this award recognizes doctoral students and junior faculty members with outstanding scholarship in the areas of racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity in social work education. This year’s winners of the CRECD Award are:

• Kasandra Dodd, MSW, LICSW, LCSW, CPM: Dodd is a licensed clinical social worker with extensive experience in the child welfare field. She is a fifth-year doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia School of Social Work, where her research focuses on child welfare reform and the intersections of human trafficking and the foster care system. Her broader research interests include racial and gender equity, feminist theory, and qualitative methodologies.
• Kerri Evans, PhD, MSW, LCSW: Dr. Evans is an associate professor of social work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where her research focuses on agency-engaged projects related to the well-being of immigrants. Much of the research focuses on immigrants within the context of the US educational system and ways we can establish a sense of welcome for new immigrant families.

The Council on Disability and Persons with Disabilities (CDPD) awards the Disability Manuscript Award yearly, recognizing scholarship that contributes to knowledge about disability; full participation of persons with disabilities; social, political, and economic issues related to disability and persons with disabilities; and social work education curriculum materials focused on disability and persons with disabilities. The four winners of this year’s winners of the Disability Manuscript Award are:

• Brendon T. Holloway, PhD, MSW: Dr. Holloway (he/they) is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at Colorado State University. Holloway uses community-engaged, participatory research methods to examine the health care experiences of trans and nonbinary communities. Holloway's scholarship centers the well-being of trans individuals with specific focuses on health care access, mutual aid, and gender euphoria. Their research is informed by his lived experience as a queer and trans person and their seven years of practice experience in health care settings.
• Rose C.B. Singh, MSW, BSW, RSW: Singh is a PhD candidate at Memorial University and a sessional lecturer at Dalhousie University. Rose teaches courses focusing on critical approaches to theory, practice, and policy. With over two decades of experience in the social services sector, Rose is also a practicing social worker. Rose’s research and interests centre on critical social work education, social justice, disability justice, disabilities, mental health, substance use, online learning and teaching, and emerging technologies.
• Laura Wernick, PhD, MSW, MPA: Dr. Wernick is an associate professor at Fordham University School of Social Service and a life-long organizer/activist. Using predominantly participatory action research, their scholarship uses a disability justice lens to explore how transformative organizing models address intersectional issues of power, oppression, healing and change within their movement organizing. Wernick’s work has focused on organizing LGBTQ+ youth, low-income youth of color, young adult activists with wealth, and employers of domestic workers. Wernick's current research is examining ableism & white supremacy culture in the social work academy.
• Shanna Katz Kattari, PhD, MEd, CSE: Dr. Kattari is an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department (by courtesy) and is the director of the [Sexuality | Relationships | Gender] Research Collective. A white, AuDHD, disabled, chronically ill, queer, fat, nonbinary femme, they are an esteemed researcher, scholar, and advocate whose work has made significant contributions to the fields of social work, health disparities, and LGBTQ+ studies.
• Honorable mentions for this award go to Jessica Curd, PhD, LCSW, ACSW, APHSW-C, ACHP-SW; and Thu Suong Nguyen, PhD.

For the past 20 years, the Commission on Global Social Work Education has presented the Partners in Advancing International Education (PIE) Awards. PIE Awards honor the contribution of social work faculty members, social work students (PhD, MSW, or BSW), and organizations as partners in advancing education for global social work. The PIE Awards are given in recognition of conceptual, curricular, and programmatic innovations in education for global social work.

• The winner of the PIE Individual Award is Ann Petrila, MSW, MPA. Petrila is the coordinator of Global Initiatives, the Global Social Work Certificate, and Global Practice Bosnia, at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. Her publications include the book Voices from Srebrenica: Survivor Narratives of the Bosnian Genocide, a chapter entitled Rethinking Community Rebuilding Through Cultural Humility in the book In This World Together: Global Social Work and Social Development, and an article in Advances in Social Work entitled "Everyone’s War Becomes My War: The Far-reaching Impact of the Invasion of Ukraine." She is the co-developer and author of the Oral History Guidelines for the Srebrenica Memorial Center. Areas of expertise include global cultural perspectives, cumulative and collective trauma, crimes against humanity, genocide and oral histories. She created an educational documentary entitled "The World Speaks and We Listen," which elevates the voices of war and genocide survivors from Bosnia who have wisdom to share with U.S. students of social work.
• The PIE Organization Award goes to the Ambedkar Association of North America (AANA). Founded in 2008, AANA is a US-based, volunteer-driven nonprofit dedicated to uplifting marginalized communities, through education, empowerment, and social justice. Following principles set by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, AANA’s flagship initiatives include scholarships, laptop and bicycle donations, and school infrastructure support in underserved regions. It promotes digital literacy, boosts school retention—especially for girls—and nurtures future leaders from tribal and indigenous communities. Through library donations, it spreads awareness of Ambedkarite thought, enriching global discourse on caste, justice, and equity. The organization funds caste-justice documentaries, offers foreign language training for global employability, and supports community health, including sickle cell screening and nutrition programs.
• The PIE Student Award goes to Finau Rabuka-Conklin, MSW. Rabuka-Conklin is an Indigenous Fijian third-year doctoral student at the University of Utah's College of Social Work. With over a decade of experience teaching Indigenous Fijian language and social work in higher education, she is deeply committed to advancing Pacific Islander education and youth leadership. She is currently developing an interdisciplinary research team to support Pacific Islander-centered scholarship and continues to mentor undergraduates pursuing research and graduate education.

For more on CSWE’s Commissions and Councils Awards, click here.