Apply Now for 2025

Summer 2025 Advanced Standing and Fall 2025 
Applications NOW OPEN for On-Campus MSW

APPLY
USC University of Southern California

Danielle Brown

Associate Teaching Professor, Practicum Education

Professor Brown specializes in trauma, mental health care, interpersonal neurobiology, EMDR and dance/movement therapy.

Media Contact
Danielle Brown
Download Hi-Resolution
Curriculum Vitae
Email:  brownde@usc.edu
Phone:  +1 213.740.2711
Rank:  Teaching Faculty

Danielle Brown

Associate Teaching Professor, Practicum Education

Professor Brown specializes in trauma, mental health care, interpersonal neurobiology, EMDR and dance/movement therapy.

Media Contact

Biography

Danielle Brown is an associate professor of social work, practicum education. Faculty since 2011, she has taught courses in practice, human behavior and mental health, and grief and loss. She currently serves as the clinical supervisor for the Trauma Recovery Center (TRC@USC).

Prior to her practicum education post, Brown was a school clinician at Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services in Los Angeles, California. In this role, she designed and supervised a practicum for Master of Social Work students from USC and UCLA.

Brown has extensive experience working with children, adolescents and adults managing severe mental illness, autism spectrum disorders, substance-use recovery, chronic pain, grief and loss, and trauma. Her clinical training includes a post-graduate fellowship at the Reiss-Davis Child Study Center in Los Angeles. She is certified in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy, is an approved EMDR consultant, and is a board-certified dance/movement therapist.

In her private psychotherapy practice, Brown works with individuals, groups and communities, emphasizing the importance of the body in recovering from trauma and the inherently healing nature of dance, movement and creative expression. She presents nationally and internationally on these topics in addition to trauma-informed practices in social work education.

Media

ABC News: How a different therapy is being used to treat 10-year-old Uvalde shooting survivorLos Angeles Times: How an amputee soccer team is helping Ukrainian soldiers overcome the trauma of war

Education

University of California, Los Angeles

MSW 2004

University of California, Los Angeles

MA 2002

University of California, Santa Cruz

BA 1997

Area of Expertise

  • Grief and Bereavement
  • Psychodynamic Theory
  • EMDR Therapy
  • Social Work Education
  • Psychotherapy
  • Trauma
  • Mental Illness
  • Substance Abuse Recovery
  • Social Work
  • Dance/Movement Therapy
  • Interpersonal Neurobiology
  • Trauma-Informed Care

Industry Experience

  • Training and Development
  • Mental Health Care
  • Health Care - Providers
  • Health and Wellness
  • Health Care - Services
  • Education/Learning

Articles & Publications

Trauma informed interview coaching: An innovative approach to achieve social justice in field education | Simmons Field Educator Practice Digest

Brown, D., Hess, S., Sing, M.I.
In 2018, field faculty at the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work launched a pilot project called Trauma-Informed Interview Coaching (TIIC). The project’s goals were to support justice-involved MSW students during the field placement process, to decrease failed agency interviews, and to reduce agency replacements. This project is ongoing and data on its outcomes are being collected and evaluated.

 

Beyond the online versus on-campus debate: Leveraging technology in a COI framework to enhance student and faculty presence in the MSW classroom | Journal of Teaching in Social Work

Parga, J.A., Bargar, K., Monte, S., Supranovich, R.A. & Brown, D.
While research typically utilizes Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) to evaluate online education programs (OEP) compared to on-campus programs (OCP), little attention is given to other qualitative elements which enhance student social presence or faculty teaching presence. The authors examine the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework and demonstrate how MSW programs with an OEP can incorporate elements to enhance student learning. Research and data included will attempt to move the discussion beyond the OEP versus OCP debate and include more pertinent ideas regarding the importance and impact of leveraging technology in MSW social work education.

 

When the past is present in the classroom: Utilizing a trauma-informed approach in the virtual setting | The Transformation of Social Work Education Through Virtual Learning

Baron, M.W., Brown, D., Cardinal, L, Hess, S., & Singh, M.I
Over the past few years, numerous highly ranked, Tier 1 universities across the United States have embraced the development of advanced online degrees, a niche of secondary education long held by a small group of private, for-profit universities. Rapid advances in online learning technology, increasingly sophisticated, and easy to use ‘learning management systems’ and ‘anytime, anywhere access’ has dramatically increase the demand of individuals, mostly full time employed, working professionals. This volume addresses the dramatic changes that are occurring in social work pedagogy as more schools develop online programs. The University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak Peck School of Social Work launched their ‘Virtual Academic Center’ with a cohort of 80 online students. The program has now reached a ‘steady state’ of 2,200 ‘virtual’ students now representing two thirds of their MSW student population. Additionally, the school launched a doctorate of social work degree with a focus on leading and managing innovation, leading public discourse and management of large complex systems. This book essentially tells the ‘USC story’ with the challenges faced in embracing this new technology, teaching social work courses in an online environment, as well as pedagogical enhancements made by faculty in converting traditional campus based courses to the virtual environment.

 

Links