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. Check out the website to learn more: http://parenting.eharmony.com/author/paynebryson. 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.

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

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.

Vander J. Dale, Jr., MSW '04, was a panelist at the Job Corps National Health & Wellness Conference in 2007. He also received the 2007 Long Beach Job Corps Center Support Services Employee of the Year Award.

Sattareh Farman Farmaian, SOWK CERT ‘32, wrote “Broadening Muslim Tradition: Bringing Family Planning to Iran,” one of the essays from Courageous Pioneers, which details her struggle to bring family planning to Iran in the 1950s. The article is featured on the website of Pathfinder International, a global leader in providing women and families with access to contraception and quality reproductive health care, in recognition of its 50th anniversary.

Lillene Fifield, MSW ’73, is a licensed clinical social worker now living in Roseburg, Oregon.

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

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

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.

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.

Steven Hendrickson, MSW ’96, is a supervising psychiatric social worker for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. He is president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3511.

Robert Hernandez, MSW ’07, is director of performance management/restorative justice for Communities in Schools in North Hills, Calif.

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.

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. 

Darlene Woo Murphy, MSW ’98, is a partner and the associate director of Assist Management Consulting, a group of social service and health professionals helping organizations and companies create, implement and maintain programs that have positive community outcomes, in Pasadena, Calif.  She is also a field instructor for the USC School of Social Work.

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

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.

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.

Jurline Redeaux, MSW ’96, is training to run her first marathon, the Disneyland Half Marathon, to benefit the American Stroke Association. She is walking in memory of her mother, Ola Mae Johnson who suffered a stroke, and is raising thousands of dollars to help stroke research.

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.

Mariko Yamada, MSW ’74, is chair of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, representing a portion of the city of Davis, Calif., and surrounding unincorporated county lands. She is also running as a Democratic candidate for California’s 8th Assembly District.