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Representation of under-represented minority (URM) faculty in the health sciences disciplines is persistently low relative to both national and student population demographics. Although some progress has been made through nationally funded pipeline development programs, demographic disparities in the various health sciences disciplines remain. As such the development of innovative interventions to help URM faculty and students overcome barriers to advancement remains a national priority. To date, the majority of pipeline development programs have focused on academic readiness, mentorship, and professional development. However, insights from the social sciences literature related to “extra-academic” (e.g., racism) barriers to URM persistence in higher education suggest the limitations of efforts exclusively focused on cognitively mediated endpoints. The purpose of this article is to synthesize findings from the social sciences literature that can inform the enhancement of URM pipeline development programs. Specifically, we highlight research related to the social, emotional, and contextual correlates of URM success in higher education including reducing social isolation, increasing engagement with research, bolstering persistence, enhancing mentoring models, and creating institutional change. Supporting URM’s success in the health sciences has implications for the development of a workforce with the capacity to understand and intervene on the drivers of health inequalities.

Introduction Heart failure (HF) is a public health problem, and self-care remains poor, especially among minorities. Access to personalized educational material via an interactive dialogue agent (DA), a system intended to converse with humans in natural language, has the potential to improve self-care. This abstract outlines the initial steps of developing an artificial intelligence-based DA to assist African American (AA) and Hispanic/Latino (H/L) HF patients with their self-care needs. Hypothesis Analysis of HF education sessions between health educators (HE) and patients can provide insight into the topics that AA and H/L patients value. Method In this IRB approved pilot study, we have recorded, transcribed, and verified 20 (18 AA and 2 H/L) HF education sessions between HE and HF patients. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), a topic modeling algorithm and Empath, a text analysis tool were used to identify common discussion topics in the transcripts. An initiative analysis was performed to identify conversation drivers where each turn (unit of speech by a single speaker, without interruption from the other speaker) was classified as either a question (ending with ‘?’), a prompt (having only filler words like umm, okay) or an assertion/command (others). Lastly, we compared the transcripts against a HF ontology published by the National Center for Biomedical Ontology and the Consumer Health Vocabulary (CHV) available in the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) to identify the term overlap. Results On average, HE took 117 turns comprising 205 sentences and 2281 words per conversation, whereas patients took 108 turns comprising 131 sentences and 850 words. Per conversation, HE asked 26 questions and had 17 prompts as opposed to 3 questions and 39 prompts by the patients. LDA identified HF and heart function, effects of HF, low salt diet, and follow-up appointment and medication as the top 4 most common topics discussed by the HE. When looking at the entire transcripts, Empath identified eating, health, and cooking as the most common topics for both the HE and the patients. Patients frequently discussed children and family, whereas HE focused on providing HF information as indicated by LDA. Lastly, only 2.1% of HE terms overlapped with the HF ontology. Our analysis revealed that 25% and 22% of the terms (without stop words such as at, the) used by the patients and HE respectively match with the ‘preferred label’ in the CHV. For both, the high frequency terms included heart, heart failure, salt, water, and fluid. This also correlated with our topic analysis findings from Empath and LDA. Conclusion Our analysis helps triangulate the kind of information HE and HF patients value. Though mostly HE dominated the conversation, it is essential to incorporate the topics that patients brought up into the DA and use culturally sensitive vocabulary while communicating them. Next, we will collect more recordings, conduct focus groups, and evaluate the usability of our prototype DA.

In the 21st century, substantial advancements have been made across the globe that positively affect the ability for school-based social workers in the fields of practice, policy, and research to meet the needs of the world’s youths. Nonetheless, children continue to suffer from poverty-stricken environments, absence of basic needs, poor or no health care, and insufficient access to quality education. The purpose of this article was to review recent trends in children’s rightsto education, psychological and behavioralhealth, and physiological health and to provide social workers with a contextual landscape for progress. Specific suggestions about how school-based social workers can make improvements across the globe are offered.

The Columbine High School shooting in 1999 prompted school officials and policy-makers to create and implement programs and policies that would prevent violence in school and ensure school safety. Ten years have passed since the Columbine shooting; however, debates concerning risk factors for the shootings continue to ensue. The focus of this article is to examine the Columbine school shootings within the context of Bronfenbrenner's (1994) ecological systems analysis. We examine the most commonly identified risk factors, which operate within five systems levels: chrono-, macro-, exo-, meso-, and microsystems, and draw implications for school-based practice and policy.

Actively engaging community members in the revitalization of their neighborhoods is a goal of numerous planning initiatives. In this article, we provide a case example of how the solution-focused brief therapy's “miracle question” was used to engage members of a major metropolitan community in visualizing their dreams and planning strategies for change. Similar to outcomes with therapy clients, community members participated actively and were enthusiastic in communicating their outcomes. Dreams were realistic and important to participants, and suggested strategies were oriented toward first steps and recognized as involving effort by the community. Engagement and retention were sufficient to move forward with immediate actions and longer-term preparation. Benefits and suggested modifications are offered for community practitioners and researchers employing this method.

The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) was founded in 1994 to provide a meeting ground and support organization for individual social workers who engage in research. Over its first 14 years, SSWR has grown from a modest-sized organization that hosted an initial conference to a large and influential force that sponsors a wildly successful yearly conference. SSWR's annual conference now showcases a portfolio of awards, including a travel scholarship for a doctoral student, a named lecture, and a very competitive abstract submission process. Funding for research by social workers has grown over the years, and SSWR, in association with the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research (IASWR), has become a regular provider of educational opportunities about funding sources. This article presents perspectives from the first seven presidents of the organization, who describe the growing richness and diversity of SSWR's membership and projects and the increasing visibility of research conducted by social workers. KEY WORDS: infrastructure; organization; research; SSWR ********** The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) was founded as a membership organization in 1994 to support social workers interested in research. To preserve the history of SSWR, this article presents sections contributed by the first seven presidents, each describing, often from a personal point of view, how their efforts helped to build the organization and to contribute to the current research infrastructure in social work. PRESIDENTIAL PERSPECTIVES Janet B. W. Williams, Founding President, 1994-1996 It was 1992. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)Task Force Report on Social Work Research (1991) had just been presented to the National Advisory Mental Health Council of NIMH. The report clearly acknowledged the significance of social work research by recognizing the breadth of critical problems with which social work deals and the increasing need for all human services to demonstrate the effectiveness of the services they provide. This report provided the stimulus and led to the funding that supported the establishment in 1992 of the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research (IASWR). IASWR was created by five leading social work organizations: Baccalaureate Program Directors (BPD), National Association of Deans and Directors (NADD), Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education (GADE), Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), and NASW. SSWR was conceived in direct response to the NIMH Task Force Report conclusion that "[t]hroughout the profession there is insufficient organizational support for research development." As a research social worker who was not embedded in a school of social work, I had always felt somewhat professionally isolated and hungry for interaction with nay social work research colleagues. As a faculty member in a medical school department of psychiatry, I frequently attended conferences and meetings of research-oriented groups in psychiatry but knew of no similar groups in social work. Therefore, at a psychiatry research meeting shortly after the Task Force Report was issued, I discussed these thoughts with Dr. Alan Leshner, at the time the director of the National Institute on DrugAbuse (NIDA). He agreed to support the founding of such a group and to contribute to its first conference. In 1992, at an NIMH-sponsored conference in Washington, DC ("Building Social Work Knowledge for Effective Mental Health Services and Policies"), I presented a plan for a new membership organization that would provide social work researchers with a base: the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWFZ). At that conference, Betsy Vourlekis also presented a report on the development of the new IASWR, as she had been appointed head of the implementation committee. At the conclusion of the conference, Betsy approached me and asked if I would delay the initiation of efforts to establish a membership group until the new organizationally based IASWR was firmly off the ground. …

Embracing the concept that the social compact between university and community can provide a cornerstone for true social change. This article details how partnering with outside organizations in collaborative relationships can help fulfill higher education's obligation to educate for the good of a democratic and learned populace. Often the social conscience of a university, schools of social work can serve as leaders in the development or facilitation of university and community partnerships to address or intervene in areas of social need. One research institution of higher education provides successful examples.

Objective: The purpose of this article was to examine how an initiative of 10 collaborative projects focused on children and youth have applied principles of participatory research, collaboratories, and technological solutions. Method: The study analyzed multiple forms of qualitative data, including semiannual formative evaluations and semistructured interviews of participating partners. Results: Both the collaborative method and the infusion of technology were central to the functioning of collaboratory projects and, ultimately, the translation from research to practice and policy. The community-based participatory nature of the research projects resulted in applicable findings that were credible with people affected by the issues studied. Conclusions: The present study suggests that when there is steadfast commitment on the part of a diverse group of partners, even simple applications of technology can make a difference.

The Global Program on Youth (GPY) employs a technology-supported, collaborative framework of problem solving, called a collaboratory, to improve the lives of children and youth. Collaboratory partners use technology to share research, apply practice wisdom, and learn from the experiences and perspectives of diverse groups of people. Findings from the initiative are presented in this article, highlighting the lessons learned from each of the participating collaboratories, including the rewards, challenges, and applications of technology-supported collaboration.

The complexities of serving as a professional school dean in a large public research university provide unique challenges, especially in relationship to issues of gender and race.

Across the globe, social workers serve schools in a variety of capacities, providing services such as skills training; individual, group, and family counseling; crisis intervention; home visits; parent support and education; and advocacy for students, families, and school systems. To date, no synthesis of the literature exists examining tier 1 and tier 2 cross-national school-based social work interventions. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review was twofold: (1) to identify tier 1 and tier 2 school-based interventions that involve social workers and (2) to examine the extent to which the interventions are efficacious with school-based youths. A computerized search with inclusion and exclusion criteria was conducted using several databases. Eighteen studies were included for the final sample in this review. Effect sizes were calculated for all outcomes to determine magnitude of treatment effect. Results indicated that most of the studies were conducted in the United States (n = 14) and half (n = 9) of the included interventions were tier 1. Many positive effect sizes were found. Interventions aimed to treat a variety of outcomes such as sexual health, aggression, self-esteem, school attendance, identity, and depression. More research is needed to determine the effectiveness of school-based social work worldwide.

Although pregnant adolescents often have serious medical and social service needs, prenatal service use by this population is much lower than that by adults. We compared the prenatal care use by mothers of different ages and sociodemographic characteristics in Illinois in 1990, for both first and repeat births. Most of the lack of service use by adolescents is due to delays in initializing care, and the associations of use with race and ethnicity, marital status, and parity are non-uniform across age groups. Implications for service providers are discussed.

Across the United States the quality of education and the need to reform schooling continue to be debated (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983). Many states have approached this challenge by upgrading standards for both education personnel and pupils. This upgrading has included using competency examinations and setting specific standards for employment, promotion, and graduation (Allen-Meares, 1987). Society now knows that large numbers of children are not achieving, dropout rates for some inner-city communities have reached alarming numbers, and children from low-income families are less likely to come to school ready to learn. In the midst of these developments, both social problems and problems in family-child functioning continue to escalate. Large-scale changes in the demographics of the country (for example, growing racial and ethnic diversity) and new social problems (cocaine-addicted babies, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, increased rates of youth suicide, and the juvenilization of poverty) and their consequences present new challenges for schools and school social workers (Danziger & Stern, 1990-91; Ford Foundation, 1989). Social workers have known for some time that educational outcome is determined by the interactions between societal and home conditions and school variables. Germain (1991) reaffirmed this point in her discussion of educational reform and school social work practice in the 1990s, acknowledging that the school alone cannot create equality in opportunity. There is a growing awareness that to achieve certain educational outcomes, social problems must be addressed first and that social work has a place in U.S. schools (Chira, 1991). The study reported in this article has four purposes: (1) to collect information about the demographic and organizational contexts in which school social workers work, the populations served, and other working conditions that influence practice; (2) to identify the most important job dimensions that school social workers must be able to perform as they begin to practice; (3) to determine whether these dimensions are correlated positively or negatively in frequency with which they are performed; and (4) to identify the tasks school social workers prefer to perform and those that are mandated by the school. This study is part of a collaborative effort involving the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey; the National Association of Social Workers' (NASW) Commission on Education; and the author. This collaboration has resulted in specialist credentials for school social workers, some of whom have been required by their respective states to receive certification by completion of the National Teachers' Examination, which did not include an appropriate battery of questions for school social workers. Literature Review Analyses of school social work tasks have dominated the literature since the conception of this field of practice. Major studies were conducted by Costin (1969) and Meares (1977), and since then, others have examined the status and current definitions of school social work tasks and functions (Alderson & Krishef, 1973; Chavkin, 1985). For example, Chavkin examined the status of school social work activities and the pattern of delivery in three states and 200 school districts. She found that traditional activities (for example, direct services to individual students, work with families, liaison work, and interpretation) were performed most frequently. However, nontraditional tasks were also provided (for example, groupwork, consultation, and administrative consultation). Link's (1991) qualitative cross-national comparison study of school social workers in London and the midwestern United States found that the U.S. school social workers worked primarily to maintain the status quo, made referrals to agencies, and helped children adapt. Link blamed this state of affairs on the fact that these workers are bound by the school and its authority over them. …

This study examines the degree to which social indicators such as rates of employment, divorce, death and population density are predictive of the timing and frequency of prenatal visits among adolescents and young adults. Predictive models are examined separately for urban versus rural women, and by age cohort: early, middle, late adolescents and young adults. Findings suggest that the timing of prenatal care is predominantly influenced by emotional and cognitive factors, whereas he frequency of visits is influenced by economic and logistical phenomena. These phenomena vary with age and urban and rural environments. Specifically, social conditions can have a disproportionate effect on prenatal care use by younger mothers.

A national survey of state offices of education identifies reform initiatives and points out pupil/family characteristics and school and community conditions that are barriers to excellence. Directions for social work services in schools are suggested.

Content analysis is presented as a research technique that social work researchers and practitioners can use to study developments and trends in social work practice, the status of social work knowledge building, the redirection of relevant policies, and accountability procedures in social service agencies. Methodological issues such as developing categories, defining the unit of analysis, sampling, and determining reliability and validity, are described and evaluated. It is concluded that content analysis provides a common basis for researchers and practitioners to document the processes and outcomes of the profession.