John Bola
Earns NIMH Grant to Reanalyze Maintenance Treatment in Schizophrenia Patients
Associate Professor John Bola has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for a secondary analysis of a randomized control trial of maintenance medication dosages in stabilized schizophrenia patients. After these individuals had been stabilized on medications, they were randomly assigned to one of three maintenance treatment medication doses (standard dose, 20 percent of standard dose and no medication) and followed up with monthly for two years. The original study tested these maintenance treatments against each other. Bola's new study will identify subgroups benefiting from one treatment or another. "This is needed because the long-term side effects of the medications are problematic, and not all patients with schizophrenia need a lifetime of full dose medications,” he said. "So we're looking to identify the individuals who can be treated safely either with a low dose of medication or without medications.”

Annalisa Enrile
Becomes a "Vagina Warrior”
Annalisa Enrile, clinical assistant professor, has been designated a "Vagina Warrior” for her efforts to stop violence against women. She was one of six honorees to receive the award from the Fiipino Women's Network and V-Day, a movement started by The Vagina Monologues playwright Eve Ensler to raise awareness and funds to benefit female victims of violence and sexual abuse. Ensler depicts "Vagina Warriors” as the women and men who have often experienced violence personally or witnessed it within their communities and dedicated themselves toward ending such violence through effective, grassroots means. An activist in her own right, Enrile frequently speaks out against human rights violations, including sex trafficking, anti-militarization and exploitative migrant labor. Read More »

Kristin Ferguson
Wins Grant to Study Homeless Youth in Los Angeles
Assistant Professor Kristin Ferguson has been awarded a faculty fellowship of $12,000 by the John Randolph Haynes Foundation, a leading supporter of social science research in Southern California. The fellowship will help fund her research on migration and transience among homeless youth in Los Angeles, a collaborative project involving social work faculty nationwide to develop a more comprehensive database on homeless and street-living youth. She hopes to gain knowledge about how homeless youth move around, how they get to where they are and where they end up, ultimately helping service providers with their outreach efforts. Read More »

Jehoon Lee
Leads New Study on Quality of Life for Korean-Americans
Research Associate Professor Jehoon Lee will serve as principal investigator on a national study that will investigate the overall quality of life for first- and second-generation Korean-Americans living in Southern California and the metropolitan areas of Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C. The project was awarded a $200,000 grant from the Overseas Korean Foundation and will be conducted through the school's Center for Asian-Pacific Leadership, which Lee directs. The results of the study are expected to provide a large-scale database to be used as a foundation for the advocacy and growth of social services for the Korean-American community, particularly in areas related to family and children, health and mental health, employment and workforce development language and education. Read More »

Haluk Soydan
Will Author Articles for NASW Specialty Practice Sections
The National Association of Social Workers has invited Research Professor Haluk Soydan to be a standing author for its Specialty Practice Sections, a series of professional development publications for active social workers, to convey his thoughts on evidence-based practice. Section newsletters are published semi-annually in nine practice areas including aging; substance abuse; child welfare; children, adolescents and young adults; health; mental health; private practice; school social work and social and economic justice.

Ann Marie Yamada
Joins University's Institutional Review Board
The Vice Provost for Research Advancement has invited Assistant Professor Ann Marie Yamada to serve as an alternate member on the University Park Institutional Review Board for international or ethnoculturally focused research studies. IRB members, including alternates, serve an important role for the university, its faculty and students by reviewing proposals involving human subjects to uphold ethical standards and assure compliance with federal, state and local regulations. Yamada's teaching and research interests include ethnic diversity, psychosocial treatment of adult and late-life psychosis and aging.

Wynne Waugaman
Promoted to Full Professor
Wynne Waugaman has been promoted to full professor. A registered nurse and certified registered nurse anesthetist, she came to USC in 1996 as an associate professor in the Department of Nursing, later becoming its chair. Upon joining the USC School of Social Work, she served as assistant dean of research and oversaw the Nurse Social Work Practitioner Program prior to taking on an interim position as vice dean for faculty and student affairs. Waugaman, an internationally renowned leader in nurse anesthesia education, is widely published and serves as the senior editor and contributing author of Principles and Practice of Nurse Anesthesia. She is also recognized for her research in the area of professional socialization.