2000-Present | 1990-1999 | 1980-1989 | 1970-1979 | 1960-1969 | 1930-1939 |

Class of 2007

Tina Payne Bryson, PhD '07, is a contributing author for eHarmony's new parenting website, where she writes a weekly column and offers expert advice to parents. She also is the director of parenting education and development for the Mindsight Institute, where she teaches parents and professionals how to understand parenting relationships in the context of the changing brain.

Karen Chien, MSW '07, is an administrator in the department of biomedical sciences at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science in Los Angeles. She presented a poster and facilitated a co-operative group at the idealist.org campus conference in April.

Katrina Fountain, MSW '07, is a consultant in Los Angeles.

Luis Garcia, MSW '07, is director of substance abuse programs and services at Bienestar Human Services, an HIV/AIDS social service advocacy center with offices in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego. He oversees the Los Angeles City Needle Exchange Program, AIDS Programs & Policy and the "Safety Counts" Program.

Joe Guada, PhD '07, is an assistant professor at the College of Social Work at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He plans to conduct research on ethnic minority families and serious mental illness.

Robert Hernandez, MSW '07, is a member of the Community Engagement Advisory Committee to the Ad-Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development that developed a gang intervention model that the city of Los Angeles has officially adopted. The model has received regional, statewide and national attention for clearly and holistically defining the emerging field of community-based gang intervention.

Andrea Lebeouf, MSW '07, is a psychiatric social worker at Kedren Community Mental Health Center in Los Angeles, where she works with children 0-15 years old. She also serves as financial chair for NASW-CA Region I.

Katherine Peterson, MSW '07, is a children's social worker for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Judy Serratos, MSW '07, is a psychiatric social worker for the Foshay Learning Center in Los Angeles.

---

Class of 2006

Will Baum, MSW '06, works at Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center – Excelsior House in Inglewood, Calif.

La Shonda Blunt, MSW '06, is a college campus outreach coordinator and high school instructor for the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital's Rape Treatment Center. In addition, she is working with global missionary networks that empower individuals through the mind, body and spirit. She also mentors underserved families, specifically by facilitating their access to obtaining a higher education. She continues to serve as chair for the San Fernando Valley Local Unit, NASW-CA Region G and is on the board of the newly formed USC School of Social Work Alumni Network.

Tosca Broadous, MSW '06, works in the adoptions unit of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Cesme Caballero, MSW '06, is a nurse health advocate for WorkCare, an occupational health consulting firm in Anaheim, Calif. that assists employees and families in navigating the healthcare system; finding resources for wellness, disease management, preventive health issues; and facilitating employee transitions back to work.

Lauren Cohen, MSW '06, is a clinician at San Diego Youth & Community Services, the city's only teen shelter, where she works with homeless and runaway youth ages 12-18. She is also part of the ACTION Network, a San Diego program created to assist victims of human trafficking and teen prostitution.

Julio Delgadillo, MSW '06, is an adoptions social worker with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Syreeta Greene, MSW '06, is assistant director of the USC Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs.

Kathy Hua-di, MSW '06, is recruitment coordinator in the Office of Admission at the USC School of Social Work, where she is in charge of the strategic planning and coordination of all recruitment of prospective MSW students and Nurse Social Work Practitioner students.

Sarah Kong, MSW '06, is a psychiatric social worker at Long Beach Mental Health. She was married in October 2006 and now lives in San Diego.

Boyoung Lee, MSW '06, is a parent and child specialist at the Koreatown Youth & Community Center in Los Angeles.

Amanda Romero, MSW '06, is a full-time instructor in the Social Work, Sociology and Gerontology Department at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles. She is also the director of the Human Services associate of arts degree program at the school. Romero was also named Advisor of the Year for 2006-07 by her advisees at the college.

Etta James Simpson, MSW '06, is a judicial investigative social worker.

Colette Street, MSW '06, is a children's social worker for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. She was recently accepted into Santa Barbara-based Fielding Graduate University's doctoral program in the School of Human & Organization Development with the intention of studying human organization and systems.

Dnika Travis, PhD '06, is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work. She recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship with the Addiction Research Institute at the school's Center for Social Work Research. Her research interests include employee voice and engagement; leadership and organizational effectiveness; and diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She teaches in the Community and Administrative Leadership concentration. Travis is also a faculty fellow with the university's Center for Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Development Program.

Justin Weber, MSW '06, is a clinical social worker at Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, Calif., where he works with patients diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illnesses.

Alaina Edwards Zink, MSW '06, is a clinician at the Institute for Child and Family Health in Miami.

Back to top

---

Class of 2005

Kara Barton, MSW '05, works in the Neurology Department at the USC Health Sciences Campus, where she serves patients with neurological disorders and diseases.

Jennifer Campos, MSW '05, is a psychiatric clinician for the County of Los Angeles Department of Mental Health.

Claudia R. Ceron, MSW '05, is a psychiatric social worker at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles.

Sangmi Cho, PhD '05, is an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, where she is currently teaching classes on Leadership and Management in Human Service Organizations and Evaluation Research. She is the principal investigator for 'Effects of Corporate Volunteer Activity on Organizational Outcomes,' a research project sponsored by the Samsung Global Assistance Program in South Korea. She won an honorable mention for her dissertation, 'The Effects of Diversity on Organizational Behavior in a Perceived Homogenous Society: The Case Study for Korea,' in the Society for Social Work and Research's 2007 Outstanding Social Work Doctoral Dissertation Award competition.

Elizabeth Carranza, MSW '05, is a social worker at the Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina, Calif.

Nadine M. Diaz, MSW '05, is working as the literacy program project coordinator at Hollygrove Children and Family Services in Los Angeles. She oversees 'Learning for Life,' Hollygrove's first-ever literacy program, where she is charged with developing a program for foster care children aged 5 to 18 years old.

Buck Dodson, MSW '05, is a social worker at The Serra Project, which provides homes and hope for adults and children living with HIV/AIDS, and maintains a private practice as well. He has previously worked at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center and the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center.

Takinia Holmes, who attended USC in 2005 in a special exchange program for student victims of Hurricane Katrina, graduated from Tulane University. She is working at Portals, a mental health rehabilitation agency serving severely mentally ill patients. Her work involves field and office therapy, group work, individual case management and DMH paperwork.

Rosie Lennig, MSW '05, is a children's therapist at Pacific Clinics.

Myisha Moody, MSW '05, is assistant director of admissions and financial aid at the USC School of Social Work, where she is responsible for providing financial aid information and counseling to prospective and continuing MSW students, as well as coordinating the school’s scholarship process and awards.

Nicole Reynolds, MSW '05, is a mental health clinician for children and adolescents at Compass Health in Mount Vernon, Wash. She also provides social work services for a home health agency, working with older, homebound adults. She lives in Bellingham, Wash.

Deborah Ward, MSW '05, is a psychiatric social worker for Edelman Westside Mental Health Center in Los Angeles.

Lisa-Satoko Watanabe, MSW '05, began working as an adoption social worker for the Presbyterian Children's Village Services in Philadelphia in May. She moved to Philadelphia in July 2005 with her husband and young daughter. The organization she works for provides residential facilities for teenagers while also offering community services, such as foster care, adoption, preservation, behavioral health services and school-based services.

Patricia Yu, MSW '05, has entered the PhD program in social work at Boston College.

Back to top

---

Class of 2004

Vander J. Dale, Jr., MSW '04, is an adjunct faculty member with the Los Angeles Community College District in the psychology department at East Los Angeles College. He is also a program coordinator at Los Angeles Job Corps in Long Beach.

Susan Enquidanos, PhD '04, is assistant professor at the USC Davis School of Gerontology.

Julianne Hines, MSW '04, serves as district director for Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, where she manages all field operations and personnel.

Tasha McFashion-Stiger, MSW '04, is currently working as a psychiatric social worker for the Department of Mental Health in a pilot program between the Department of Children and Family Services and the Department of Mental Health to provide psychotherapy in the homes of children in out-of-home placement. McFashion-Stiger was also recently certified by the Los Angeles Community College Foundation as an instructor to teach prospective foster and adoptive parents seeking to be licensed in Los Angeles County as placement resources.

Alma Morales, MSW '04, is a social worker for the Initial Response Team in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

Jan Nissly, PhD '04, was hired by the Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services at the USC School of Social Work. Her primary area of research focuses on the public child welfare workforce and the influence of various organizational conditions on factors such as employee stress and well-being, workforce turnover and service outcomes.

Currently, she is project director for the Partnerships for Families Initiative, a five-year multi-site evaluation led by a collaborative team of researchers from UCLA, USC, Claremont Graduate University and the Juvenile Protective Association in Chicago. She also serves as co-principal investigator with Associate Professor Devon Brooks on two Dept. of Children & Family Services-based studies: Evaluation of Structured Decision- Making (SDM) and Evaluation of the Consolidated Home Study Program.

Julie Pan, MSW, PPSC '04, is a clinical social worker for trauma/surgery at LAC+USC Medical Center. She provides individual therapy using a variety of treatment methods to services patients and family members in hospital and outpatient clinics to restore them to their highest level of functioning. Previously, she was a social worker for Orange County Social Services in programs such as In-Home Supportive Services and Calworks.

Elaine Pang, PhD '04, accepted a position as research director of Beverly Foundation, which focuses on research and development of educational materials regarding senior citizen issues.

Lisa Stratford, MSW '04, is a deputy probation officer at the Dorothy F. Kirby Center in Commerce, Calif., where she works with mentally challenged delinquents.

Bobby Walden, MSW '04, was co-author of an article published in The Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work.
Jones, C.A., Vela, E., TangJudy, V. & Walden, B.D. (2006). Perceptions of Social Work: Undergraduate Students Assess the Profession. The Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, 12(1), 1-12.

Back to top

---

Class of 2003

Brent Barcellona, MSW '03, joined USC as a full-time field faculty member in Orange County in October 2005, where he will be responsible for foundation-year students. He previously served as director of juvenile diversion services for a non-profit agency serving at-risk youth. He also is a certified national trainer in the treatment modality of brief strategic family therapy. Active in NASW, Barcellona currently serves as the NASW Region F Orange County unit chairperson and has been nominated to run for regional director of NASW Region F in 2006.

Jenna Colburn, MSW '03, is creating and managing a new foster family agency, Alliance Human Services Foster Family Agency, located in Rancho Cucamonga. The agency specializes in placing special-needs children and offers treatment foster care, a more in-depth support system.

Irene Garcia, MSW '03, is a mental health therapist at Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services.

Brenda Quinonez-Garcia, MSW '03, is a clinical social worker at the Cancer Center at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, where she works with leukemia/lymphoma patients. She is also running a 'Look Good, Feel Better' program for teens.

Carla German, MSW '03, is a psychiatric social worker for Los Angeles Unified School District.

Shirley Kim, MSW '03, is a clinical social worker at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore

Amy Levin, PhD '03, is an assistant professor at California State University Northridge, where she is helping with the start-up of CSUN's MSW program, which debuted in fall 2005. She is teaching Introduction to Social Work Methods, Introduction to Social Welfare and Child Welfare. In spring 2004, she was a visiting professor at Hebrew Union College, where she taught Qualitative Research Methods for MPA and MSW students.

Sally Ng, MSW '03, is a service area navigator for the Full Service Partnership (FSP), a new program funded by Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). Her responsibilities include finding referrals and linking underserved individuals to appropriate services. She works after hours with the Psychiatric Mobile Response Team, evaluating and assessing clients who may need to be hospitalized. She is also affiliated with the Safer Cities Initiative, a collaborative between the Department of Mental Health and Los Angeles Police Dept., in which she walks the streets of Skid Row to offer services to homeless individuals. After graduation, she worked at the Department of Mental Health in a position that had been created for her initially through a grant during her second year of the MSW program. As part of the Disaster Services unit, she prepared staff and clinicians on how to respond to mental health needs following a major terrorist attack.

Madelyne Pfeiffer, MSW '03, is director of social services for Las Palmas Housing in Encinitas, Calif., a non-profit real estate developer of affordable housing. She oversees social services for 25 affordable housing communities in California, manages on-site service coordinators and works on fundraising and program development.

Tiffany Rector, MSW/JD '03, was recently appointed to the statewide board of the California Coalition on Sexual Offending. She has also taught first-year policy classes at the USC School of Social Work in Orange County.

Gustavo Sagredo, MSW '03, is a psychiatric social worker for Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles.

Mark Spratt, MSW '03, is a consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLP and specializes in global e-Learning, Web-Based Training (WBT), organizational development, change and process reengineering. He has worked with various corporations, non-profits, state and local governments, and university groups for over five years. He has dual master's degrees in Social Work and Public Administration and is an associate clinical social worker.

Lisa Tran, MPA/MSW '03, is a realtor with Keller Williams Realty in Studio City, Calif.

Back to top

---

Class of 2002

Idabelle Fosse, MSW '02, works at Safe Passages in the areas of policy development, communication and advocacy, strategy implementation and evaluation, resource development, and technical assistance. The organization provides leadership in the creation of a system of care for children 0-5 who have been exposed to community and domestic violence and their families in Alameda County. She also works with partner agencies on the development, coordination, implementation and analysis of the Oakland Early Childhood Initiative. In addition, she serves on the Mental Health Services Act Planning Panel to strategize what to do with Alameda County's Prevention and Early Intervention funding for mental health services.

Nani Lee, JD, PhD '02, is currently the executive director of Five Mountains Hawaii, a non-profit community health organization in Waimea, South Kohala, Hawaii. She served as the deputy administrator for beneficiary advocacy and empowerment for the Office of Hawaii Affairs upon graduation. She then joined Chaminade University of Honolulu as an associate professor of Behavioral Sciences and as the director of community and external relations in 2004.

Wilfred Lee, MSW '02, admissions director for the School of Social Work at California State University, Los Angeles, was appointed to serve the City of Santa Monica as commissioner of the Social Services Commission.

Debi Berzon-Leitelt, MSW '02, is a training coordinator at the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health who develops training programs for the county's mental health and children and family services departments, foster parents, caregivers and the community at large. She had previously worked as a psychiatric social worker for the county.

Maria Marquez, MSW '02, is a social worker with the Latino Family Institute.

Michele Prince, MSW/MAJCS '02, is director of the Kalsman Institute of Judaism and Health at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She has also been a member of the oncology social work staff at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital, where she was named Norris Employee of the Year at the end of her first year of service. In school, Prince was drawn to the area of bereavement, attributing it to "the legacy of the Holocaust" and her mother's early death. Together with another graduate student, Prince created The Jewish Bereavement Project, a website with resources for those who have lost a loved one.

Marsha Schlesinger Tilles, MSW '02, worked as a bilingual therapist for Community Counseling Service Systems of Care, a 24/7 crisis intervention program, upon graduation. Currently, she is a diploma project advisor at Johnnie Cochran Middle School, where she supports seventh and eighth graders who are not meeting academic standards. She is also a first-year field instructor with the USC School of Social Work.

Back to top

---

Class of 2001

Aaron Albelo, MSW '01, received his license in April 2005 and is currently a psychiatric social worker for the Department of Mental Health. He is part of a school-based mental health project at Nimitz Middle School in Huntington Park, Calif., where he provides individual and family therapy for children and adolescents.

Wendy Flenoury, MSW '01, is coordinator for the VA Supportive Housing Program for Homeless Veterans at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. She also facilitates an anger management group for adolescents at the Guidance Center in Los Angeles.

Marianne Fougere, MSW '01, is a licensed independent clinical social worker in private practice in Lexington, Mass., specializing in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their families. She also works for Cambridge Family and Children's Services, administering a Department of Education program to families who have ASD children.

Jessica Grimes, MSW ‘01, who teaches in the Department of Sociology at California State University, Fullerton, has received the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Award for Outstanding Part-time Faculty Member.

Christina D. Gutierrez, MSW '01, is a psychiatric social worker in the adolescent psychiatric inpatient division at the Augustus F. Hawkins Mental Health Center in the LAC+USC Healthcare Network.

Victor Manalo, PhD '01, is a city council member for the city of Artesia, Calif. He has also served as commissioner and chair of the Planning Commission for Artesia, chair for the ABC Unified School District Legislative and Policy Committee, and as a board member of Su Casa Family Crisis and Support Center in Artesia. He currently is an assistant professor teaching macro practice, policy analysis and community organization at Cal State Los Angeles.

Mya Rosett, MSW '01, currently resides in Sherman Oaks, Calif. and is a full-time mother of a 23-month-old.

Back to top

---

Class of 2000

Kristie Holmes (Halsey), MSW '00, is an assistant professor of social work at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. The school was named one of the "Best Colleges" in U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review. Currently she is teaching part-time in the BSW program and will move to a full-time appointment in Fall 2008 when the MSW program begins.

Holmes, K. (2005). 'Let Me Help You, So I Can Feel Good: Recognizing Co-dependent Behavior in Helping Relationships.' Health Ministry Journal. 1 (3), 19-20.

Kelly Glossup, MSW '00, is a deputy probation officer/therapist for the Los Angeles County Probation Department.

Alyson Mischel, MSW '00, is psychotherapist and life coach in Los Angeles. She is frequently quoted in media and has several projects in development, including an upcoming book called Pop Therapy, which uses case studies from the movies and television.

Kevin Sweeney, MSW '00, is director of counseling at Beverly Hills (Calif.) High School.

Eileen (deGuzman) Whitfield, MSW '00, is a clinical social worker at Torrance Memorial Medical Center.

Back to top

---