DEI Highlight Corner

DEI Highlight Corner

The Social Work DEI Team wants to recognize the breadth of diversity, equity, and inclusion work being done in our Department and the larger MSU Denver community as well as amplify the voices of those from historically silenced communities. Have a story you want to share with us for a chance to be featured on our website? Submit it today!

Welcome Statement

To our Social Work Community:

MSU Denver Department of Social Work has embarked on a journey to provide the necessary supports and resources to the department to ensure that we create a culturally responsive professional and academic learning environment truly rooted in an anti-oppressive social work practice.  We invite the Department, students, and partnering agencies to actively engage in and create spaces for critical reflexivity, self-awareness, and discussions around the dismantling of oppressive systems.

The social work profession is built upon a set of core values that recognize the “dignity and worth of the person,” “the importance of human relationships,” and “social justice” (NASW, 2021, preamble).  MSU Denver strongly believes that social work education is based on belief that reform is necessary within most social systems, whereby the social work curriculum is uniquely situated to provide the basic understanding and implementation of incremental and significant changes across the micro, mezzo, and macro levels.  Understanding how discrimination characterizes and shapes the human experience and development of identity, diversity, equity, and inclusion work must be recognized as foundational to the social work education experience.

Please join the Department as we hold brave spaces to embrace intersectional identifies and confront oppressive systems.

Mission Statement

To provide the necessary supports and resources to the department to ensure that we create a culturally responsive professional and academic learning environment truly rooted in an anti-oppressive social practice.

Vision Statement

MSU Denver Social Work Department strives to practice, promote, and educate the Council on Social Work Education’s competencies regarding diversity and social justice. Specifically, to engage diversity and difference in practice and advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice.

Self-Care Practices that support Self-Compassion

Meet the DEI Team

Tanya Greathouse, LCSW, Ph.D.

Tanya Greathouse, LCSW, Ph.D.

Social Work Department DEI Coordinator, Faculty Mentoring, OSWSS and Field Liaison, Courageous Conversations

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Kristen Atkinson, MSW, Ph.D.

Kristen Atkinson, MSW, Ph.D.

Faculty, Staff, and Student Programming Coordinator

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head shot photo of Karina A. Benabe, MSW

Karina A. Benabe, MSW

Spanish-Speaking Faculty and Student Coordinator

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Erin Boyce, MSW, Ph.D.

Erin Boyce, MSW, Ph.D.

Student Cultural Humility Development and Student Courageous Conversations Facilitator

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Bianca Brandon

Bianca Brandon, LCSW

Student Cultural Humility Development and Student Courageous Conversations Facilitator

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Julie Clockston, DSW, LCSW, Cert Ed

Julie Clockston, DSW, LCSW, Cert Ed

Communications Coordinator, B-IPOC, Neurodiverse, and Disabilities

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Perri Corvino, MSW, LCSW, LAC

Perri Corvino, Ph.D., LCSW, LAC

Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning Coordinator, Facilitator of Listening and Learning Spaces

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Marsha Montano

Marsha Montano, DSW, LCSW

HSI Programming Specialist

[email protected]
Dr. Adrianna Taylor

Adrianna Taylor, DSW, LCSW

Curriculum Development and Programming Coordinator

[email protected]

DEI Offerings

Listening and Learning Spaces (LLS)

LLS are peer-supported, voluntary, virtual group spaces that are offered once a month to Department of Social Work staff and instructors to connect, listen, support, and learn with each other. We gather in this peer space to be collectively witnessed, thoughtfully supported, and compassionately challenged as we navigate tender relational dynamics, the successes and the struggles.

Contact the DEI Team

If you have any DEI related questions, concerns, curiosities, or if you are in need of a consultation please reach out or submit a contact form!

Social Work DEI Contact Form

Office Location:
Central Classroom Building, Suite 201

Email:
[email protected]

Mailing Address:
Metropolitan State University of Denver
Department of Social Work
PO Box 173362 CB 70
Denver, CO 80217-3362