Along with the new academic semester comes a new roster of faces and administrative changes this year at the USC School of Social Work. At the helm remains Marilyn Flynn, whose deanship has been renewed for a third term.

During her tenure, Flynn has been instrumental in raising the profile of the school's endowed research center that now brings in more than $22 million in external funding and overseeing a number of curricular reforms that have resulted in the addition of a mandatory leadership course and the first-ever nurse social work practitioner option. She has also aggressively pursued scores of international partnerships, increasing the school's visibility in many Pacific Rim countries where social work is taking a leading role in helping developing nations adapt to their new economic and social transformation.

By her side is Wynne Waugaman, interim vice dean for faculty and student affairs, who replaces Jacqueline Mondros while a permanent search is conducted. Waugaman's previous roles as chair of the USC Department of Nursing, director of the nurse social work practitioner option, assistant vice provost for faculty affairs and chair of the USC Institutional Review Board have appropriately prepared her for this new administrative responsibility. She also has just completed a fellowship in the provost's office at the University of Alaska. Waugaman received the first doctorate in the nation for her specialization in nurse anesthesia and has since published extensively on issues in professionalization.

Associate Professor Devon Brooks was appointed to the newly created position of associate dean for faculty affairs and development, a direct response to the school's rapid growth and expanding complexity, especially with the reclassification of 10 field faculty coordinators to clinical instructors and the increasing number of full-time clinical teaching faculty. In this new administrative role, Brooks will advocate on behalf of the faculty, acting as their liaison with the dean's office. His responsibilities will focus on the professional development of clinical faculty and the establishment of new policies to guide faculty recruitment, orientation, evaluation and advancement.

"This new position was created to nurture individual and collective faculty development in a way that supports and rewards the efforts of faculty, especially junior faculty," Brooks said. "Our desire is to enhance our environment of community and be more strategic in responding to the needs of faculty."

In addition to its more attentive approach internally, the school is looking to expand its external outreach as well. Assistant Dean Cherry Short will head the new global and community initiatives unit to explore collaborative activities with international entities, local community organizations and state and local government in California. Part of her team will include Dan Hester, the new director of global programs, and Carrie Lew, who is transitioning from overseeing the school's MSW admissions and financial aid for 13 years to the newly created post of assistant dean of alumni relations and career development. Assistant Director of Financial Aid Cathy Bryson-Moore will replace her as the new director of admissions and financial aid.

The school has also boosted its tenure-track faculty with two new hires, in addition to promoting post-doctoral fellow Leopoldo Cabassa to assistant professor. An expert in racial and ethnic disparities in mental health care, Cabassa is currently the principal investigator of two pilot studies examining how perceptions of depression and attitudes toward depression treatments influence Latino primary healthcare patients' depression treatment preferences and adherence to care.

USC alumna Concepcion (Concha) Barrio joins her alma mater from the School of Social Work at San Diego State University, where she taught advanced direct practice courses and chaired the Mental Health Task Group. Specializing in serious mental illness, mental health services research, clinical practice, and cross cultural issues, the associate professor is currently a principal investigator on a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grant entitled, "Culturally-Based Family Intervention for Mexican Americans." She is also a co-investigator with John Brekke, associate dean of research, on another NIMH grant, entitled "Biosocial Factors in Rehabilitation for Schizophrenia." Prior to her academic appointment, Barrio was in charge of admissions at the USC School of Social Work and a psychiatric social worker with extensive practice experience.

A recent graduate of Columbia University, Dorian Traube specializes in the mental health outcomes of urban adolescents and the effects of HIV on children and adolescents in the Unites States and in Sub-Saharan Africa. Much of her research has focused on the use of multiple family groups for the prevention of teen HIV infection. She has worked as a research fellow at both the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Before pursuing her doctorate degree, Traube was a clinical social worker in a pediatric HIV clinic at New York Presbyterian Hospital and a research analyst at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, Division of Health Services Research.

Other new faces to social work include the part-time appointment of Senior Vice President Emeritus and former Vice Provost Michael Diamond. In addition to teaching in the Social Work and the Workplace and the Community, Organizing, Planning and Administration (COPA) concentrations, he will be responsible for the Consortium for Graduate Professional Research and Teaching in China and assisting the development of the professional doctorate program.

Assisting him will be Research Associate Professor Mark Robison, who also is interested in developing courses on historical research methods, the history of social welfare in the United States and labor history.

The school's research capacity in the Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services will be substantially strengthened by the addition of Senior Research Fellow John Landsverck. Landsverck is an internationally respected psychologist with more than 30 years' experience in conducting NIMH-supported research with children and adolescents at risk of developing mental disorders. His role will focus primarily on mentoring advanced graduate students and junior faculty, in addition to participating in potential collaborative NIMH-sponsored research with major child welfare programs in Los Angeles.