Renée Michelsen MSS, LCSW, is an associate teaching professor and regional practicum education coordinator for the Virtual Academic Center. She is part of the national practicum faculty team in the Virtual Academic Center (VAC). Prior to coming to USC, Michelsen served as the director of practicum education and taught at Rutgers University School of Social Work. She received her Master of Social Service degree from Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work and Social Research in 1984. Michelsen earned her LCSW in 1991 and holds the LCSW credential in New Jersey and Delaware.

Michelsen has held leadership positions in two major health care systems spanning a 25-year career in medical social work prior to entering academia. She directed multiple geriatric grant-funded programs in New Jersey and served on the New Jersey State Commission on Aging. She was the director of social work for a large hospice organization and has a post-master’s certification in palliative and end-of-life care from the Silver School of Social Work at New York University. In 2007, she won the New Jersey Hospice and Palliative Care Organization award for Hospice Clinical Director of the Year.

Her first academic appointment as an adjunct was at the College of Saint Elizabeth in 1996. She taught in the Continuing Education program at Rutgers, presenting topics in the areas of aging, disabilities and health care, from 1992 to 2007.