The USC School of Social Work welcomed two new professors to its faculty this semester.

Karen Lincoln, an assistant professor from the University of Washington, specializes in mental health inequalities across the life course, informal networks, and negative social interactions. Her current National Institute of Mental Health-supported project examines how race, socioeconomic status, social relationships and stress impact depression among African American and white adults. She is a former Hartford Scholar and is currently a scholar with the National Institute of Mental Health's African American Mental Health Research Scientist Program. She earned two master's degrees and her doctorate in social work and sociology from the University of Michigan.

Rami Benbenishty is a visiting professor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he is the Gordon Brown professor in the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare. His research focuses on child welfare, including the effect of out-of-home care on children and the effect of violence on children, especially violence at school. His most recent book, School Violence in Context: Culture, Neighborhood, Family, School, and Gender, published in 2005 with co-author and USC School of Social Work Professor Ron Avi Astor, won the 2007 Outstanding Book Award from the American Educational Research Association. Benbenishty received his doctorate from the University of Michigan.