2026 Staff & Faculty Awards

Staff Appreciation Award

Three staff members were recognized for exceptional service in 2026:

• As associate dean of operations, Dusty DiSanto provides strategic leadership for the financial and operational functions of the school, partnering with school and university leadership to advance GSSW’s strategic priorities, ensure financial sustainability, and foster cross-functional collaboration. He also provided operational leadership for the Morgridge College of Education’s marketing, enrollment, and financial aid needs during the 2025–26 academic year.
• As the senior advisor for Career and Student Engagement Services, Stacy Said supports GSSW students as they explore how they can use their MSW upon graduation, provides traditional career development, and connects them with community partners, organizations, and employers so they can achieve their career aspirations.
• As director of grants administration, Alex Stuart supports GSSW, the GSSW Butler Institute for Families, and the Morgridge College of Education, helping to develop strategies for securing and managing funding for research and scholarships. Her work also includes identifying new opportunities, finalizing proposals, collaborating with colleagues on ways to support their work and plan staffing approaches, and helping her team to troubleshoot occasional systems hiccups.

Award for Excellence in Teaching — Adjunct Faculty

As the president/CEO of Innovative Action Consulting, alumnus and Adjunct Instructor Tony Hernandez (MSW ’75) provides community development and affordable housing services for nonprofit, government and private-sector clients. He draws on this experience as an instructor for leadership development and policy analysis courses.

Award for Excellence in Teaching — Appointed Faculty

Clinical Professor Michael Talamantes has served on the GSSW clinical faculty since 2013. With a background in workforce development and integrated health and behavioral health, he served as the co-investigator of the CLIMB program and has continued to be successful in collaborating to identify new funding to support students in that area. He also coordinates GSSW’s Health and Wellness Pathway.

Award for Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students

Professor Heather Taussig, this year’s recipient, is the creator of Fostering Healthy Futures (FHF), an evidence-based mentoring and skill-building program for youth with child welfare involvement. The intervention was developed and tested with research funding from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Clinical Master Teacher Award

This year’s recipient is alumna and Clinical Assistant Professor Nikki Allen (MSW/MA ’06), a licensed clinical social worker and addiction counselor who draws on her own practice experience and teaches courses on integrated health care and substance use interventions. The Clinical Master Teacher Award was established by Jana Edwards (MSW ’78) and other alumni to recognize outstanding faculty whose teaching and training impacts the careers of future clinicians.

Jeffrey Jenson Endowed Annual Research Award

Associate Professor Erin Harrop is the 2026 recipient of the Jeffrey Jenson Endowed Annual Research Award, which was established by Philip and Eleanor Winn Endowed Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Jenson to recognize a tenure-line or research faculty member whose research has impacted a social issue of importance to the field. Harrop uses art, storytelling, and mixed-methods research to tell patient-centered stories about health care experiences, elevating the voices of marginalized people in the health care system, including those living with eating disorders and those facing weight stigma.

Kay M. Stevenson Faculty Citizenship Award

The Kay M. Stevenson Faculty Citizenship Award recognizes outstanding service to the school by an appointed faculty member. The 2026 recipient is Clinical Professor Philip Tedeschi, founder and director emeritus of GSSW’s Institute for Human-Animal Connection and co-director of the Institute for Animal Sentience and Protection.