Pioneering Change: New Master's of Social Work Program at CSUDH

Social work is about people, and people are about culture. - Mitch Maki, dean, College of Health and Human Services

A new master’s of social work (MSW) program at California State University, Dominguez Hills will focus on the social service needs particular to south Los Angeles County, a large metropolitan area, which includes a wide range of socially and culturally diverse people. Students will be prepared for contextually competent social work practice, inclusive of culture, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, and religion, with a curriculum that recognizes prejudice and institutionalized racism as issues that can undermine helping efforts when not recognized.

“The conceptual framework is a way of analyzing and critiquing theories as they apply to specific groups of people,” says Larry Ortiz, professor of social work and director of the MSW program. “We hope to produce a social work professional who understands not only theory, but the level of critique that they have to use in order to appropriately intervene with a particular person.”

The two concentrations offered are “Children, Youth and Families,” and “Community Health/Mental Health.” The program aims to increase students’ understanding of the underlying causes and resulting effects of discrimination, and stereotyping from a variety of perspectives, while teaching ways of identifying strategies and interventions for these problems in social work practice.

The two-year MSW program requires students to attend full-time within a cohort. Candidates with a minimum GPA of 2.75 in the last 60 semester units or 90 quarter units must submit their GRE scores with their application. For those with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, the GRE is optional.

Ortiz emphasizes the perpetual need for social work graduates, saying that the Dominguez Hills program is a response to “tremendous needs, that’s why we’re doing a program in an area that is otherwise well-serviced by the CSUs, USC, and UCLA. Child welfare positions are always open, and working with the aging population and people suffering from mental illness are areas that continually have lots of openings.”

One unique feature of the CSUDH MSW program is a multicultural faculty with expertise in contextually competent social work practice. Ortiz is hopeful that the ethnic and professional backgrounds of the faculty will enhance the learning experience for students.

“What this brings to the students is a reflection of the student body,” he says. “In terms of students of color, success in the university is highly related to whether or not they have role models in the classroom. I’ve been doing research on Latinos in doctoral programs in social work, and there is a finding in the research that talks about the ideological fit between the student and the institution. What successful graduate students need is an institution that provides them an ideological fit, both structurally in terms of its programs, and faculty, with whom they can identify, who can provide support for first-generation graduate students of color.”

Mitch Maki, dean, College of Health and Human Services, commends the new faculty as “pioneers,” for their willingness to take on the challenge of building the MSW program at Dominguez Hills from the ground up.

“A lot of professors want to go to a secure setting, with an established program,” he says. “But the faculty that we’re bringing on board saw the opportunity to create a brand new program from scratch, that’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most professionals. They didn’t want to join a ship that was already sailing. I think that innovative spirit will be passed on to our students.”

Dennis Corbin, assistant professor, comes to CSUDH with a background in direct clinical practice.  He is a doctoral candidate at Howard University’s School of Social Work and has a MSW from Clark Atlanta University.  His research interests are HIV/AIDS, spirituality, international social work, social work practice and adolescent issues.

Susan Nakaoka, director of field practice received her M.A. in Asian American Studies and master’s of social welfare in a dual-degree program at the UCLA. She has more than 15 years of experience in providing social services to low-income housing residents in the Los Angeles area and nationally.  Most recently, she was the project director of a mental health training program at the University of Hawai`i School of Social Work.

Susan Einbinder, assistant professor of social work, received her M.S. and doctorate in social work from Columbia University. Her research and publications examine policies, programs, and services that affect the economic and social well-being of families with children, including collaboration among child welfare agencies. From 1993 to 2002, she was a faculty member at USC’s School of Social Work, conducting research at a number of community-based social service agencies, including Beyond Shelter, an agency in Los Angeles that helps homeless families with children regain and retain permanent housing.

Ortiz received his MSW from Western Michigan University and doctorate degree from SUNY Buffalo. Previously he directed the MSW Program at West Chester University and the bachelor’s in social work program at Our Lady of the Lake University. Most recently he was on the faculty at the University of  Maryland School of Social Work. His areas of research and writing are program evaluation, community practice and issues related to cultural diversity.

Maki describes the benefits for students of learning from a faculty as diverse as the clients they will one day serve as social work professionals.

“A faculty that appreciates the importance of culture, and understands how to work across and within it, has a foundation to teach effective social work, with not only ethnic diversity, but in diversity in terms of gender, age, lifestyle, sexual orientation and abilities,” he says. “Social work is about people, and people are about culture.”

- Joanie Harmon

Photo above: Faculty in the new master's of social work program come from a variety of expertise and diversity of backgrounds. (L-R): Dennis Corbin, assistant professor of social work; Larry Ortiz, professor of social work and director, MSW Program; and Susan Nakaoka, director of field practice, MSW Program; photo by Joanie Harmon.

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