Alejandra Acuña is a licensed clinical social worker.  She received her BA in Biology at Vanguard University and her MSW in Social Welfare at UC Berkeley.  She has developed, implemented and evaluated health education programs in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood, working primarily with immigrant or youth populations.  She has worked with children, youth and families doing child protective services emergency response casework for Sonoma County and school social work in Los Angeles.  As a psychiatric social worker at LAUSD, she has provided and evaluated universal, targeted and intensive interventions for elementary and high school students.  As a team leader for the South Los Angeles Resiliency Project, she worked closely with an evaluator to examine the mental health and academic outcomes of comprehensive school social work services. She has won local and national awards for supervising social work interns. She has taught Child Welfare and Women’s Issues courses in the School of Social Work at California State University-Los Angeles and Social Work in Schools at UCLA.  Her research interests include school-based mental health services, promoting resiliency, family therapy core skills and prevention/treatment of secondary trauma.

Stephanie Benson graduated from UCLA with a BA in International Development Studies. After graduating she spent six years in the Sultanate of Oman working with projects focused on the cultural preservation of endangered craft industries and communities. She later returned to Hawai’i to work with an organization that provides housing and employment opportunities to populations with severe and persistent mental illness. Stephanie recently completed her MSW at the University of Michigan (with a concentration in Social Policy and Evaluation) where she was involved in multiple research projects investigating food insecurity, community engagement and youth empowerment in Detroit, and a review of state Community Mental Health Centers to identify factors that impede or sustain evidence-based practices. Her current research interests include poverty alleviation policy, welfare reform, community development, children and family programs, and policy evaluation. 

Miya Chang received her BA in Sociology and her MA in sociology from Korean Universities.  She earned a M.Div. (Master of Divinity) at San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) and recently graduated from the MSW program at California State University, Los Angeles.  Her research interests include elder mistreatment, mental health among Asian American older adults, mental health service utilization, development of culturally component intervention modalities, and evidence-based mental Health practice. Her current research will focus on perceptions of Korean American elder abuse and culturally competent services.
Advisor: Ailee Moon

Lin Chen is a third-year doctoral student in Social Welfare at University of California, Los Angeles. She owns a bachelor degree in Social Work from Fudan University. After graduating, she continued her research on aging at University of Oxford, and received M.Phil. in Social Policy and Social Work. Her research interests for doctoral study mainly focus on gerontology, intergenerational communication and institutional caregiving. Currently, she is working on her dissertation proposal.

Mindy Chen received her B.A. in Anthropology from Harvard and M.S.Ed in Counseling and Psychological Services from the University of Pennsylvania.  As a union/community organizer for many years, she observed that grassroots organizing challenges people to act on issues that impact their wellbeing and consequently builds their capacity to negotiate inequities at personal and institutional levels.  She would like to further examine how organizing strategies can be incorporated into social work practice to help promote individual and group resilience.  Her research interests include community psychology, social movements, the construct of empowerment, culture, identity, and gender and immigrant issues.

Laurie Chisholm received her BA from Saint Mary’s College of CA and her MSW from UCLA.  For the past five years, she practiced as a NYS Licensed Master Social Worker with communities in the South Bronx and Harlem. Her research interests are in poverty and inequality, diversity and social justice, nonprofit organizations, and social policy.  Laurie’s heart is in macro practice and studying the relationship between social policy, organizations and the practice.

Susanna Curry received her B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology from Earlham College in 2007. Before returning to graduate school at UCLA, she worked with Sacramento’s City/County collaborative to address chronic homelessness and was a leader in the development of the successful annual event “Sacramento Homeless Connect.” She has also spent time with the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Community Change in Washington, D.C., and served as a UCLA David Bohnett Fellow in the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Her primary research interests include the experience of families in the United States welfare system, policies addressing chronic homelessness, qualitative methods, and program evaluation.
Advisor: Todd Franke/Zeke Hasenfeld

Diane Fields Terry obtained her BA in Sociology as well as her MSW from the University of California, Los Angeles. Following graduation, Diane worked for two years for the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) as an Emergency Response Children’s Social Worker, and additionally as a Dependency Court Investigator. Her research interests center around the relationship between the public child welfare and prison systems, and the impact of incarceration on children living in foster care.

Simon Funge received a BA in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine in 1992 and an MSW from California State University, Long Beach in 1998. He previously worked for the Mental Health Association of Orange County as a Program Coordinator supporting people who were mentally ill and homeless or at risk of becoming homeless; and he most recently worked as a Program Specialist for the National Conference for Community and Justice. His interests include improving police-community relations, non-profit leadership and organization, fostering grassroots leadership and neighborhood empowerment, and the impact of bias upon Arabic, Middle Eastern, South Asian, Southeast Asian and Muslim communities post-September 11, 2001.

Leah Rose Hanzlicek graduated with a B.A. in Sociology from UC Berkeley in 2002. She served as a child welfare caseworker for several years in Oregon, where she became active in the Service Employees International Union. She completed her M.S.W. at the University of Michigan, and while in Ann Arbor she assisted with a longitudinal study of child welfare worker recruitment and retention. Since coming to UCLA she has been involved in outcomes research for young adults with former juvenile justice involvement, in addition to designing and implementing an evaluation of a community-based mentoring program for foster care and juvenile justice youth. Her research interests include mental health services for adolescents in the child welfare system, qualitative methods, and public policy implementation and evaluation.

Jason Harley is a long time Bruin. He holds a B.A. in history, an M.Ed. in teaching, and an M.Ed. in administration, all from UCLA. After spending 10 years in the public school system, Jason decided to turn his attentions toward improving society. He is currently finishing his first year as an MSW student and will join the combined Ph.D. program in the fall. His research interests center around government responses to needy populations.

Megan Holmes received her BA in Psychology from San Diego State University in 2004. Before entering the combined MSW/PhD program in 2006, she coordinated an NIH/NIAAA-funded study examining environmental risk and protective factors related to college students’ heavy drinking, intoxication, and alcohol related problems. Megan received her MSW in 2008 and has continued to work clinically with women and children from domestic violence households. Her dissertation is examining the long-term effect of domestic violence exposure on children’s social behavior (i.e., establishment of peer relationships, social skills and aggressive behavior). Additionally, her dissertation examines the mediating effect of maternal parenting quality (i.e., maternal warmth, nonviolent discipline and maltreatment) between exposure to IPV and children’s social behavior trajectories.

David B. Howard received his BA in American Studies from UC Berkeley in 2001 and his MSW from UCLA in 2007. David brings a variety of experiences with him into the doctoral program, including fundraising, development and policy research in the nonprofit sector, clinical work with the homeless in Skid Row, and community organizing for Assemblymember Karen Bass. For the past 2 years, he has also worked as a researcher at the UCLA Center for Civil Society, where he has assisted with reports on the local nonprofit and philanthropic sector. His research interests include nonprofit human service organizations, social policy, homelessness, poverty, and philanthropy.

Nikki Hozack graduated from the University of Portland with my MSW in 2010.  Her background includes 10 years of combined experience working in psychiatric and medical research at various universities including the University of California San Diego, Stanford and Oregon Science and Health University. Her general study interests lie in alternate and complementary treatments and programs for acute and persistent mental illness that will inform current mental health reform in the United States and further the mental health promotion and prevention goals set by the WHO and the Surgeon General. While at UCLA, her goal is to study the effects of community outreach programs on the recruitment and engagement of at-risk youth into early psychosis intervention programs and the reduction of stigma surrounding psychotic disorders and mental illness.

Lila Jihanian earned her MSW from UCLA, specializing in Gerontology. She received her BA in Psychology and Art from Pitzer College.  Before entering the Ph.D. program she helped to operationalize a transportation program for older adults and contributed to research on public and nonprofit transportation programs for older adults.  Prior to her formal entry into the field of Social Welfare, she worked in the Inland Empire office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.  Her research centers on the long-term care needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older adults and how long-term care providers can be responsive to these needs.  A key part of this focus involves recognition of how diversity among LGBT older adults may impact on long-term care issues. 

Jaclyn Jones (Advisor: Prof. Stuart Kirk) completed a BA in psychology at Cal Poly Pomona in 2000 and an MSW from Cal State San Bernardino in 2003. Since completing her MSW she has worked towards completing her licensure hours at Patton State Hospital providing psychotherapy services to patients committed to the California Department of Mental Health as PC 1026 (guilty but not guilty by reason of insanity) and PC 2972 (mentally disordered offenders). She is interested in exploring research related to mental health and in particular forensics in order to work towards reforming the criminal justice system to allow for the provision of enhanced services to this often overlooked population.

Rachel Kaplan received her MPH from The George Washington University in 2004 where she conducted a needs and strengths assessment for mothers of children with disabilities in Russia for her Master’s thesis.  Rachel was a Research Coordinator at the Women’s Global Health Imperative (WGHI) at the University of California, San Francisco for two years.  Now as WGHI’s Middle East region Program Coordinator, she is working to establish collaborative research projects in the Middle East to examine issues in reproductive health and HIV prevention and treatment.  Rachel is the Executive Director for the Global Network of Researchers on HIV/AIDS in the Middle East and North Africa has a background in working with members of vulnerable populations and in public health project management in the university setting.  Her research interests focus on qualitative methods, human rights, gender issues and women’s health, and HIV/AIDS in the Middle East. 

Hyeon Jong Kil (Advisor: Prof. Anheier) received his BA in 2002 and MA in social welfare in 2005 from Seoul National University. At Seoul National University, his research focused on public welfare delivery system, longevity demography, social welfare history and comparative methodology. Before beginning the combined MSW/Ph.D program in 2005, he worked as a part-time instructor at Hanshin University in Korea. Currently, his interest includes social welfare delivery system, non-profit organizations for the elderly and social welfare comparative methodology.

Ariel Kim received her BA from Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea) and her MA from UCLA in Asian American Studies. She worked as a Graduate Student Researcher for Professor Ailee Moon and as a Staff Research Associate in the the Department of Social Welfare at UCLA before entering the combined doctoral program in 2000. Ariel's research focus is domestic violence and prevention/intervention policies and practices.

Craig Landry is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker that is returning to school for his Ph.D after many years in clinical practice. His experience includes out-patient therapy with adults at Augustus F. Hawkins Community Mental Health Center, out-patient therapy with children in foster care and medical social work at a level one trauma center. Craig is also a Clinical Instructor and Research Associate at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry. Craig received his MSW from California State University, Long Beach in 1997, and he is particularly interested in research that contributes to the development of evidenced-based, culturally competent interventions for use in community mental health.

Charles H. Lea III received his B.A. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and his M.S.W at the University of Michigan.  For the past several years, Charles served as a Policy Analyst in Oakland, CA at Social Policy Research Associates (SPR), conducting research and evaluation studies in the areas of prisoner reentry, school reform, workforce, and youth development.  Prior to joining SPR, Charles worked as a case manager serving adjudicated youth, and held positions as an HIV/AIDS health educator and mental health assistant.  Charles professional and personal experiences have shaped his interest in examining the relationships between reentry, recidivism, and public schooling among incarcerated African American and minority males.
Advisor: Laura Abrams

Ji Sun Lee graduated with her masters degree from Columbia University School of Social Work last May. At CUSSW, she worked on a research project of Dr. Neeraj Kaushal, monitoring public attitudes towards immigrants and U.S. immigrant policies. Her general interests are in utilizing and developing policy research on Gerontology; productive aging; social construction of disability; and the effects of prejudice on marginalized population. Ji Sun received a B.A. in Early Childhood Education from Ewha Women's University, Seoul, Korea and a M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from Boston University.

Linda Jang Lee (entered MSW/Ph.D. program, fall 2006.) received her BFA in design from Seoul National University. After working in a marketing agency for a year and a half, she went on to study Human-Environment Relations (a.k.a. Environmental Psychology) at Cornell University and received her MS. Throughout these seemingly unrelated stages of education and experience, her concentration was in environments for children in out-of-home group care. She wants to extend her studies to aging out of residential care and international
organizations’ approach to orphan care. Linda is very happy to at last be in the social welfare field.

Margaret Lee received her BA in Sociology and Asian American Studies and a minor in Afro-American Studies at UCLA.  Her undergraduate research experience includes race/ethnicity issues and educational attainment, including an internship at the Office of Research at the Department of Education in Washington.  She has also spent much time overseas including teaching American Culture and English to government officials in China and working on refugee social development projects with the World Bank in Indonesia.  Her research interests are in civil sector work in the developing world and ethnic conflict.

Sung Eun Lim received her BA in Cultural Anthropology from Hanyang University in Korea and her MSW from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.  After graduating, Sung Eun worked for New Life Family Services in Minnesota as an adoption unit supervisor.  Returning to Korea, she has worked as a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs since 2005.  She has been involved in various research projects for persons with disabilities and children and families, and has implemented an evaluation of welfare policies in national and local government in Korea.  Her current research interests include social investment program for children and their families who are socioeconomically vulnerable, welfare reform, social welfare delivery system, and policy evaluation.
Advisor: Aurora Jackson

Casey MacGregor holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.S.W. from Hunter College. Currently, Casey is a Research Associate with the Center for Implementation Practice Research and Support (CIPRS) and the Center for the Study of Healthcare Provider Behavior with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), examining organizational arrangements for post-deployment care. Casey has worked on national research projects to advance postsecondary education and employment opportunities for low-income young adults through work as a Research Analyst in the Oakland office of MDRC, a public policy research firm. Prior to MDRC, she worked at a maternity residence for teens, a Brooklyn community center and with Manhattan Family Court as a Court Appointed Special Advocate, among other positions.  Casey's scholarly interests include implementation science for the human services, adolescent child welfare policy, the interface between nonprofits and government agencies, and improving VA mental health care to the new demographic of American veterans.

Lesley Maradik Harris received her MSW from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Jane Addams College of Social Work, and BS from Purdue University, in Youth, Adult and Family Services. Currently, Lesley is working on her dissertation research in partnership with Save the Children’s HIV Sector to improve the care and support of orphaned grandchildren affected by HIV/AIDS who are living with older caregivers in Vietnam. Lesley conducts trainings for social care workers hired by the project, which incorporates the findings of her ethnographic research on grandparent caregivers.  She also facilitates information sessions with other NGOs working in Vietnam on how to include older adults into development programs.  Lesley’s scholarly interests include ethnographic research on kinship caregiving and coping, the interface of global aging and HIV/AIDS, and capacity building for grandparents in international programs.

Ioana Mateescu has a Master’s degree in sociology from CSU Northridge and a BA in psychology from UCSB.  She is looking forward to pursuing a degree in social welfare because she believes it will be the perfect merging of her previous academic interests and experience and believes that her studies will help to effectively merge research and practice. Ioana  has mainly been a full-time student in the past few years, working primarily in the field of education as a substitute teacher and tutor.  Currently sje is teaching a high school class through UCLA’s Youth and Recreation Program and also working as a behavioral therapist with autistic children. Her main interest is gender studies.

Jordan Morris received her B.A. in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park and her Ed.M. in school psychology & education policy from Teachers College, Columbia University. More recently, Jordan served as project manager on a federally funded research intervention focusing on temperament theory and consulted on various NYC teacher professional development grants, while also earning a certificate in graphic design. Her research interests include child and adolescent development, race & schooling, social and family issues, and media psychology.

France T. Nguyen attended the University of California, San Diego for her undergraduate studies, where she obtained a double Bachelor's in Biochemistry/Cell Biology and Issues in Public Health. She went on to complete a double Master's in Public Health as well as Asian American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include HIV/AIDS, public health issues, public health policy and advocacy, and working in developing countries. She was awarded a National Institute of Mental Health HIV/AIDS Predoctoral Fellowship, and also received a Fulbright Fellowship for her dissertation fieldwork in Viet Nam.

Hannah Nguyen received a double bachelor's in Sociology and Public and Community Service from UC Irvine in 2005 and her MSW from UCLA in 2007.  Hannah has had continuous experience working with the API communities in areas of health outreach and education, counseling, program development, and community partnerships.  She served as the Vietnamese program coordinator for the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) 2010 - Health Access for Asian Pacific Seniors Project in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Her research interests include sociocultural aspects of illness identity, help-seeking behaviors, and quality of care for Asian Americans with mental illness.  In addition, Hannah is interested in the collaborative role of traditional mental health services and faith-based settings as sources of mental health care.

Dustianne North received her B.A. in World Arts & Cultures from UCLA in 1994, and her M.S.W. from UCLA in 2001.  She has coordinated and provided training and technical assistance for youth prevention and mentoring programs throughout California and the nation for the past decade, specializing in programs serving youth in high distress.  Dustianne is also an activist and artist, and she has worked simultaneously to organize community members and provide popular education programming for the promotion of social change.  Her research interests include community empowerment via social movements and organizing, career and life decision-making of organizers and other civic and civil participants, youth and child welfare issues, and interorganizational collaboration.

Sara Pilgreen (combined MSW/PhD student) received her BA in Psychology and Communications from University of Hawaii Hilo in 2004.   She then went on to serve in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Vanuatu. Before entering the combined program at UCLA, Sara completed her M.A. at Teachers College – Columbia University in Clinical Psychology.   Her research interests include macro practice, extreme poverty, and community-based participatory research.

 Lori Ring began the combined MSW/PhD program in 2001. She received her BA from Scripps College and subsequently worked in research and program/policy analysis for the US Department of Health and Human Services, the California Court Appointed Special Advocates Association, and the UCLA School Management Program. Lori is interested in the utilization and influence of practice research and program evaluation within the field of child welfare.

Sergio Rizzo-Fontanesi completed his B.A. in Psychology at San Francisco State University his first year M.S.W. placement at Children’s Institute, Inc. and his second year placement at Harbor UCLA’s Wellness Center and Adult Outpatient Psychiatry. His research interests include studying the intersected effects of violence, poverty, culture, and law on mental health, especially among communities of color. He is particularly interested in how these intersections may create and sustain mental health disparities; influence the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders; and ultimately help shape the construction of self-concept and social identity. Lastly, he interested in the provision and delivery of mental health services that are sensitive to the social context and culture in which mental distress and illness occur.

Gina Rosen is a first year PhD student.  After completing a B.A. in sociology at the University of Rhode Island in 2003, Gina worked for the North Shore Central Labor Council in Boston, Massachusetts.  In 2006, she earned an MPP from American University, where she worked in the policy office at the National MS Society, as a research analyst at the US Department of Agriculture, and as a congressional staffer in the Office of Rep. Steny Hoyer. More recently, she worked for a consulting firm performing program evaluations for government agencies, and as a research analyst for the Service Employees International Union analyzing private equity firms.

Cindy C. Sangalang received her BA in Psychology from UC Berkeley and MSW from UCLA.  Her professional experiences include program development, advocacy, counseling, and community-based research with non-profit organizations serving youth and underserved groups.  She has also served as a graduate mentor to under-represented and first-generation undergraduate students at UCLA.  She is currently a pre-doctoral clinical fellow with the Council on Social Work Education Minority Fellowship Program.  Her primary research and teaching interests include race and ethnicity, adolescent development and mental health, and community-based participatory research with Asian American populations. 

Stan Smith (Ph.D.) received his BA in sociology from Cal State Northridge and his MSW from Cal State Los Angeles. Before gaining experience in the child welfare arena, Stan spent 12 years working in community based organizations as an adolescent substance abuse treatment counselor and program administrator. His current research interests include forensic social work, child and family substance abuse treatment accessibility, multi-agency and interdisciplinary public social work practice and social work perspectives on geography and environmental issues. He is also active in the National Organization of Forensic Social Work and his local National Association of Social Workers’ chapter activities as well.

Nancy Takahashi received a BA in Sociology and an MPH/MSW from UCLA.  She worked at the Sepulveda Veterans Administration as a project coordinator at the Center for the Study of Healthcare Provider Behavior, and several other health services research studies. She also worked with the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Centers (GRECC) at the VA.  Her research interests include long-term care and dementia care. 

Christina Tam received her double Bachelor's in Psychology and Criminology, Law & Society from UC Irvine in 2008 and her MSW from UCLA in 2011.  Her undergraduate research focused on the differences in the effects of maternal and paternal incarceration on children, which fostered her current interest in policies surrounding the criminal justice system.  Since then, Christina has been involved in the non-profit sector working with formerly incarcerated women, and in public service at the Los Angeles Mayor's Office as a Michael S. Dukakis Fellow and the Human Services Division at the City of Santa Monica.  Her other areas of interest include juvenile justice as well as program development and outreach in API communities.
Advisor: Bridget Freisthler

Crystal Thomas is a native of Los Angeles and a 2007 graduate of UCLA, where she majored in International Development Studies and minored in Spanish. As an undergraduate student, Crystal worked at the UCLA Sloan Research Center on Everyday Lives of Families where she assisted in research on working middle-class family life. Post-graduation, she re-located to New York City where she worked in the Mayor’s Office under the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services first as a New York Urban Fellow and, subsequently, as Special Assistant to the Deputy Mayor. Crystal assisted the Deputy Mayor and Chief of Staff on various policy initiatives, participated in public-private taskforces dedicated to NYC nonprofit organizations, and conducted strategic planning for improvement of all city social services. Her research interests involve examination of government services as they intersect with poverty and child welfare. 

Carissa van den Berk-Clark holds a M.S.W. from Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work, a M.A. in Legal Analysis from Webster University and a B.S. in Child Development from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Her research interests include community development and poverty caused by social stratification and the issues involved with socially and economically stratified neighborhoods. Carissa’s resume includes micro and macro social work with community development non-profits, child development centers, public schools, homeless shelters and drug treatment centers as well as legal work for the ACLU and the public defender’s office and law firms.

Nancy Jo Williams received her BA from Stanford University and her MSW from UCLA. As an undergraduate, she worked on a longitudinal research project that examined the role of acute and chronic life stress experiences in the familial transmission of depression. This experience cultivated her interest in how stressful, and often traumatic, life events might be associated with individual distress.  In addition to academic research, she implemented program evaluations for a non-profit mental health agency. As a practitioner, she has focused on clinical work related to individuals exposed to sexual violence, interpersonal violence, and child abuse and neglect. Most recently, she worked for Los Angeles County as a child welfare worker in South Los Angeles and Watts. Her research interests include understanding the impact of acute and chronic exposure to violence, the environmental factors that contribute to this violence, and how this knowledge can be used to create more effective prevention and intervention models. She also is interested in understanding barriers to treatment and conditions that influence service availability and utilization for high-risk groups and culturally diverse populations.

Lauren Willner completed her undergraduate degree in Feminist Studies and Photojournalism at NYU in 2004.  Lauren moved to Seattle where she spent two years as an Americorps volunteer. She received her MSW with a concentration in Non-Profit Leadership and Administration from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. Lauren is interested in looking at how institutionalized racism impacts the development of non-profit and social service agencies, and the functionality of the non-profit sector over all. She is also interested in social work pedagogy, particularly how social work students are educated to understand issues of institutional and structural oppression.

Andrea Witkin (MSW/Ph.D.) received a B.A in Psychology and an M.A. in Counseling for Loyola Marymount University. For the past 6 years, she has worked as a Research Project Director at UCLA's-NPI Center for Community Health designing and implementing HIV intervention and prevention programs with high-risk adolescents. She has spent the last 10 years and working with adolescents in schools, substance abuse centers, and homeless shelters. Her research interests include adolescent mental health, school violence, and school reform issues.

Fei Wu (MSW/Ph.D.) received her B.A. in history from the People’s University of China. She then pursued her M.A. in Criminology and her M.S.W. at the University of Toronto. Since her graduation, Fei has worked as a research project coordinator in a Toronto-based psychiatric hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Clinical cultural competency survey among hospital staffs and CIHR funded survey on Ontario youth drug abuse are two examples of the projects Fei coordinated. Her current research interests include international social work practice, adolescents’ substance abuse and how macro social/political policies influence clinical practice.

Jazmin Inez Zane (entered MSW/Ph.D. program, fall 2006) graduated from University of California, Los Angeles, with departmental honors/B.A. in psychology. For the past two years she has worked at UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse programs with a population of methamphetamine addicts. She has also worked on and published research papers with faculty mentors in the psychology department. Jazmin is interested in researching prescription drugs and how they affect quality of life and mental health.