Speakers at the opening plenary session, "Interational Research in Social Work: Strategies, Lessons, and Potential". From left to right, Fred Ssewamala, Alberto Godenzi, Michael Sherraden, and Angelina Yuen (click on the larger image to see Angelina).

Michael Sherraden on the panel. When I was a graduate student the mentors who taught me the most about international social work research were Michael Sherraden, Richard Estes, and Richard J Parvis.

Angelina Yuen, the Associate Vice-President of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and a very important figure in the development of social work education in Hong Kong.

Fred M. Ssewamala speaking at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Meeting in San Francisco (2010). His topic was, "A family economic strengthening approach for care and support of orphaned and vulnerable children." He presented with co-authors Leyla Ismayilova and Leyla Karimli.

Leyla and Fred and Leyla look up at the screen as they prepare to give their talk at the 2010 Annual SSWR Meeting in San Francisco.

An abstract of their presentation:

In most parts of sub-Saharan Africa, there are few public welfare programs to serve orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC). As a result, the burden of raising OVC falls primarily on extended families with limited resources. Against this backdrop, several organizations are initiating innovative efforts to strengthen families in the care and support of this marginalized group of children. The Suubi intervention (meaning hope in a local Ugandan language), is one such initiative designed to relax income constraints–through economic strengthening of OVC and their families—using children savings accounts for education and family small-business development.

Saijun Zhang gives his presentation on Neighborhood Disorder, Community Social Capital, and Parental Stress of Fragile Single Mothers, which he worked on with Min Zhan.

Leyla Karimli at the SSWR Annual Meeting in San Francisco, 2010.

Leyla Ismayilova at the SSWR Annual Meeting in San Francisco, 2010.

Arlene Stiffman, probably the person with the most significant influence on my skills and thinking about research, presents her paper Improving mental health status: environment versus services.

Arlene is describing different trajectories for behavior problems over time, and the line that is blue describes a group of youth whose problems were high at the beginning of the study, but low by the end.

The Aaron Rosen Lecture was given in San Francisco by Gail Steketee, who spoke about treatment for obsessive compulsive disorders and hoarding. As usual, the Aaron Rosen Lecture was outstanding.

I didn't get a good photograph of Sanna Thompson, who was a year or two ahead of me in the doctoral program at GWB (now "the Brown School"), but I did get a picture of this poster she presented for her team.

When the poster sessions are going I don't always have time to read what I want to see and discuss the papers with the authors, so I take photographs and study the posters when I get home. This one by Susan Neely-Barnes was quite interesting.

This was one of the slides used by Gail Steketee to demonstrate how hoarding problems are rated. My home and office can often be in the first three categories, but never in the worst six categories.

I always look forward to seeing my old friend Trina Shanks at every SSWR Conference.

Susan Neely-Barnes was a student in a class where I was a teaching assistant. She was outstanding, and now she is a professor of social work.

Someone was relying on this young person to help them put away their poster after the poster session.

Trina Shanks presenting as part of the round-table titled, Capitalizing On Policy: Designing Youth Employment And Service Programs With An Emphasis On Positive Development.

The Detroit Summer Youth Employment program offered some young persons work and training in the field of survey research and program evaluation, and they helped evaluate the summer employment program. Trina brought some along to present their impressions of their experience as researchers.

Due to a scheduling problem this round-table session met initially in a circle out in a hallway, but then we were relocated to a more traditional room.

David Hodge is another friend I regularly meet at the SSWR conference.

David is quite interested in the role of spirituality in social work practice and therapies. He is the author of Spiritual Assessment.

Sam Choi and Nancy Rolock standing in front of Sam's poster. Nancy was at the Children and Family Research Center in Urbana, but now I think she is working on her doctorate at Jane Addams (UIC).

Saijun Zhang and Hui Hwang during a poster session

Ga-Young Choi at the 2010 SSWR conference in San Francisco. I think she is now at the University of Northern Iowa.

Ga-Young and Ching-Wen walk along Market Street toward The Embarcadero.

Ga-Young and Ching-Wen eating lunch at the Ferry Terminal Building.

Here is Rose Korang-Okrah at the Ferry Terminal Building.

Rose Korang-Okrah is finishing up her doctorate at the U of I Urbana, but her MSW is from GWB.

Jean Kjellstrand is speaking to Mary Eamon and Ching-Wen Chang. Click on the small picture above to get the big image with all three.

Ching-Wen and I went for a walk after lunch one afternoon. Here she is posing near the Vallejo and Montgomery intersection.

Ching-Wen Chang in San Francisco, looking down Kearny toward downtown from Vallejo Street.

To see other images from a social work conference (a 2007 meeting in Hong Kong) click here.