Dr. Elaine R. Wright

 Assistant Professor of Social Work

Avila BSW Field Coordinator

816.501.3647

Elaine.Wright@avila.edu

Dr. Elaine Wright joined the Social Work Program at Avila University in the fall of 2008. She has a variety of social work experiences with services for youth, as well as experience teaching and providing lectures in schools of social work in the USA and abroad. In urban and rural settings, Elaine has worked with youth in cross-cultural exchanges, immigrant and refugee services, juvenile justice programs, peace projects, and public school systems. Prior to completing a dissertation on the impact of globalization on social work education in the USA, Russia, Germany, and China, Elaine traveled to these countries and many others to study or teach about social work around the world. Elaine has also taught macro practice, research, and elective courses in the master's program at the Kent School of Social Work in Louisville, Kentucky.

With a background of working in outdoor settings as therapeutic environments, Elaine previously served as social services coordinator and family worker for a residential wilderness treatment program for youth at risk and as a counselor and special needs facilitator for a YMCA camping program. Elaine's environmental interests include conducting research on the environmental attitudes and practices of social workers in different countries and the environmental discourse in social work literature. Elaine has also volunteered with Living Lands and Waters on river clean-up projects and as a research consultant for the Community Farm Alliance on LIFE (Locally Integrated Food Economies) in Kentucky.

Having travelled to many countries across the globe, Elaine has had a range of multicultural experiences including management of an employment training and peace/reconciliation project for young adults from Ireland and Northern Ireland, implementation of a crisis intervention program in Northern Ireland, and facilitation of or participation in exchanges to and from China, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. Elaine has also supervised the coordination of orientation services for newly arrived immigrants and refugees and volunteered with local agencies responding to the needs of these individuals and families.

Special interest areas: The environment, globalization, immigrants and refugees, international social work, sustainable development, and programs for youth.

Lindee Petersen Wilson, BSW, MSW, LCSW, LSCSW
Assistant Professor of Social Work

Avila BSW Department Chair

Lindee.Wilson@avila.edu

(816) 501-3648

B.A. (Journalism), B.S.W., M.S.W., University of Iowa
Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Illinois since 1991
Licensed Specialist Clinical Social Worker in Kansas since 2007

Lindee Petersen Wilson joined the Social Work Program at Avila University in the fall, 2002. She has extensive social work experience in child and family services, as well as seventeen years of teaching experience in schools of social work.

For eighteen years Lindee served as a family social worker and clinical supervisor in a juvenile delinquency prevention agency. In addition to providing supervision and family social work services, she designed and implemented an early identification program for young children who had a first-time arrest. The program organized families, schools, older youth in detention facilities and police departments to prevent further delinquency behavior and to strengthen family units.

Lindee previously administrated an undergraduate social work program, was the chairperson of a social and behavioral science department at a midwestern university, and has a wide variety of teaching experience in practice classes at both the undergraduate and graduate levels of social work. She has served as Field Coordinator in two BSW programs during the past decade. In addition, she is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Illinois, where she ran a small clinical social work private practice until coming to Avila.

For two years, Lindeee participated in one of the first Basic Training programs in Internal Family Systems (IFS) with IFS founder Richard C. Schwartz in Chicago. Lindee has offered many introductory presentations about this model of intervention, speaking regularly at the IFS national/internation annual conference in the Chicago area. Lindee is also a Licensed Specialist Clinical Social Worker (LSCSW) in Kansas with a small private practice specializing in IFS treatment.

Special interest areas: Family-based social services, adolescents, Internal Family Systems therapy ,treatment of anxiety disorders and depression, spirituality, women's issues and life span development.

Adjunct Instructors with many years of quality practice experience in the Kansas City region provide a variety of perspectives and backgrounds to the students' education experience in Social Work.

Mark S. Cederburg, LMSW, LCSW, ACSW, teaches the Avila Social Work department's Human Behavior in the Social Environment II course and the Social Work Capstone seminar.  Mark is a skilled professional social worker with over 30 years of experience in a variety of direct service, supervision, administration and teaching settings.  Mark received his MSW from the University of Kansas, a BA in Psychology/Sociology from UMKC and an AA in Psychology/Sociology from Longview Community College.  He has taught for the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas providing field and classroom instruction and liaison services to undergraduates and graduate social work students since 1988. 

As a current member of the Examination Committee of ASWB, Mark has written items for professional social work examinations, as well as internal publications for the University of Kansas Medical Center.  Mark was previously Director of Admissions for Ozanam, a large adolescent residential treatment center in Kansas City, Missouri, and was the Coordinator of Social Work Training for the Developmental Disabilities Center at KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas. Other experiences include being the Director of Therapy Services at Spofford, a direct service practitioner for Heart of America Family Services (now The Family Conservancy) and a Case Manager for the Missouri Division of Family Services (now Children's Division).  Early in his career, Mark provided individual, family, and group counseling services to clients at Research Mental Health Services (now ReDiscover).  He also coordinated a work experience program for clients at that facility.  

Mark has been a member of NASW since 1982 and was a Delegate to the Delegate Assembly in 2002, as well as holding several other committee and officer roles. 

Mark has been awarded the Margo Schutz Gordon Award for Excellence in Field Education in both 1997 and 2002.   In 2000 he was also a People to People Ambassadors Program Delegate to China. 

Mary Ann Smith, MSW, LMSW, MBA has joined the adjunct instructors at Avila University in the Social Work department.  Mary Ann will bring her years of community and organization practice experiences to the Practice with Communities and Organizations course.  Mary Ann is the current Director of the American Cancer Society.  She has also worked for St. Francis Community Services managing 50 employees in foster care reintegration.  Mary Ann has worked for Cessna Aircraft as a Labor Relations Representative, and has been an Employee Assistance Counselor, as well as a Program Manager and Therapist for a geriatric psychiatric unit.  She was a Clinical Director of a Children's Treatment Center.  Mary Ann has over 20 years of social work practice experience, with a strong focus on youth and family treatment and substance abuse treatment, in addition to her more recent organization experiences. 

She previously taught at Newman University as an adjunct faculty member.  Mary Ann has co-authored two book chapters and two journal articles including "Occupational social work in rural areas: Broadening the social service boundaries" with Smith, M.L. and DeWeaver, K.L.  Human Services in the Rural Environment, vol. 15 (2), 1991.  

Eva Williams, MSW teaches the department's Crisis Intervention special topics course.  Eva has been employed in the field of medical social work for many years.

Deb Danelly, MSW, an Avila social work alum, teaches the Grief and Loss special topics course.  Deb worked for years in Hospice settings and currently provides counseling services through her own private practice.