Alumni

For 2023 PhD graduate Miguel Trujillo, a doctorate was a way to help his community by creating systemic change.

Andrea Sierra graduated from our Animals and Human Health (AHH) certificate program in 2022. She is now a clinical supervisor at The Crossroads Inc., in Phoenix, Arizona, one of the largest non-profit residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment programs in the United States. At Crossroads, she utilized the knowledge she gained in AHH to assist her in implementing a human-animal interaction program that incorporates psychoeducational topics, such as communication skills, trust building, trauma, and mindfulness.

Molly DePrekel graduated from IHAC’s Canine-Assisted Intervention Specialist (CAIS) certificate program in 2022. She has been an IHAC adjunct faculty member since 2017 and has taught many courses within IHACPro’s Animals and Human Health certificate program.

Recent PhD graduate Pari (Shah) Thibodeau has redefined moral injury among health care social workers and developed an updated scale to measure moral injury in this population.

Alumna Nikki Allen, MSW/MA’06, brings a dedication to social justice and experience as a behavioral health provider to her new role as a GSSW clinical assistant professor.

A field internship took MSW student Christy Janiszewski to Uganda to work with the Comfort Dog Project, an intervention that pairs war trauma survivors with rescued dogs for mutual healing.

This summer, GSSW sponsored Movimiento Poder’s annual Liberation Camp, where Latine youth leaders developed their movement organizing skills and grew as community leaders.

Laurie Albright, a 2023 graduate of IHAC’s Humane Education Practitioner Certificate (CHEP) program, wears many hats in her professional life. She is a part-time hospice social worker, a teacher-in-training, and a volunteer adoption guide at the Denver Animal Shelter. In all these roles and more, Laurie incorporates elements of humane education.