PhD Candidates
Author(s)
GSSW
Communication Team
Graduating University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work PhD candidates are ready to put their doctoral training to work as teachers and scholars who advance social work knowledge and social justice.
Annie Zean Dunbar, MA
Doctoral candidate Annie Zean Dunbar is a researcher and artist whose practice centers Black feminist theory traditions to examine interstitial experiences of displaced peoples. Her research interests include racialization and identity, organizational theory, mutual aid and community care, and long-term newcomer belonging in the United States. Zean’s creative writing centers conceptions of truth and omission, liminality, temporality, memory and the effusive nature of healing. Zean identifies as a “1.5 generation newcomer” whose ancestry spans Liberia and the United States. Her dissertation project looks at the personal and professional lives and experiences of Black newcomers who work with other newcomers in the United States. The study also aims to elucidate practices, values, benefits and actions practiced within Black newcomer communities. Zean holds a master’s in social services administration from the University of Chicago and a BA from Simmons University.
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Research Interests/Areas of Emphasis
- Newcomer (immigrants/refugees) belonging in the United States
- Mutual aid and community care practices
- Organizational theory and leadership
- Temporalities, place and belonging
- Critical theories
- Racism and societal inequalities
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Dissertation
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The Role of Care Practices, Mutual Aid, and Racial Formation in Black Newcomer Practitioners’ Lived Experience within Organizations: A Critical Qualitative Inquiry
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Select Grants, Fellowships & Awards
- Institute for Humane Studies Graduate Sabbatical Grant
- University of Denver Center for Immigration Policy and Research 2023–2024 Student Summer Research and Internship Grant
- University of Denver Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Study of (In)Equality 2022–2023 IRISE RSI Research Grant
- University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work 2022–2023 Outstanding Dissertation Award
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Select Presentations
- Hostetter, C. R., Littman, D. M., Holloway, B., Dunbar, A. Z., Bender, K., & Sarantakos, S. P. (2023, January 11–15). Conceptualizations of mutual aid during COVID-19: A critical analysis [Oral paper presentation]. Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ.
- Kuntzelman, C. C., Dunbar, A. Z., Noor, A., Garcia, A. E., & Badran, M. (2022, August 1–5). Filling in the gaps: Care work, refugee institutional actors, and racialized organizations. In C. C. Kuntzelman & A. Z. Dunbar (Chairs), Knowledge and meaning-making in exile: Constraints and opportunities [Oral presentation]. International Association for the Study of Forced Migration Annual Conference 2022: Global Issues, Regional Approaches—Contexts, challenges, dialogues, and solutions, virtual conference hosted by the Universidade Catolica de Santos, Brazil.
- Dunbar, Z., Milligan, T., Littman, D. M., & Bender, K. (2021, June 28). “Because it’s not going to be pretty unless we work together”: Where does mutual aid fit into the future of social work? [Panel presentation]. Social Work Futures? What social work does the world need now? Glasgow Caledonian University, United Kingdom.
- Dunbar, A. Z. (2021, April 15–16). Integration and racialization of Black immigrants in the United States [Paper presentation]. Memories in Transit, Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement, Cambridge University, United Kingdom.
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Select Publications
- Beltran, R., Brown, D., Dunbar, A. Z., Schultz, K., & Fernandez, A. (in press). Indigenist abolition: A talk story on ideas and strategies for social work practice. In M. Kim, C. Rasmussen, & D. Washington (Eds.), Abolitionist social work: Possibilities, paradox and praxis. Haymarket Press.
- Dunbar, A. Z., Littman, D. M., Boyett, M., Bender, K., Saavedra, K., Melton, C. C., Milligan, T., & Bogle, C. (2023). Using foresight practice to imagine the future(s) of mutual aid. Social Work and Society, 21(1). https://ejournals.bib.uni-wuppertal.de/index.php/sws/article/view/841
- Littman, D. M., Boyett, M., Bender, K., Dunbar, A. Z., Santarella, M., Becker-Hafnor, T., Saavedra, K., & Milligan, T. (2021) Values and beliefs underlying mutual aid: An exploration of collective care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 13(1), 89–115. https://doi.org/10.1086/716884
- Steward, A., De Fries, C., Dunbar, A. Z., Trujillo, M., Zhu, Y., Nicotera, N., & Hasche, L. (2023). A phenomenological understanding of the intersectionality of ageism and racism among older adults: Individual-level experiences. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Social Sciences, 78(5), 880–890. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbad031
Brendon T. Holloway, MSW
Doctoral candidate Brendon T. Holloway (he/they) uses community-engaged participatory methods to examine the health care needs and desires for trans and nonbinary communities. Brendon’s scholarship centers the health and well-being of trans and nonbinary individuals with specific focuses on health care access, mutual aid, health liberation, and gender euphoria. His research is informed by his lived experience as a queer and trans person and six years of practice experience in health care settings. Brendon’s research seeks to disrupt conventional deficit-based narratives of trans and nonbinary people, painting a more holistic picture of who trans and nonbinary individuals are. Brendon holds a BSW from Middle Tennessee State University and an MSW from the University of Michigan.
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Research Interests/Areas of Emphasis
- Trans and nonbinary communities
- LGBTQ+ health equity and liberation
- Mutual aid among marginalized communities
- Community-engaged and participatory mixed methods
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Dissertation
- The Embodiment and Experiences of Gender Euphoria among Transgender and Nonbinary Communities: A Mixed-Methods Inquiry
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Select Grants, Fellowships & Awards
- International Weight Stigma Conference, 2023 Best Poster Award: “It’s so internalized, and it’s so personal”: A qualitative study exploring MSW students’ experiences in a weight stigma course
- Council on Social Work Education, Council on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression, 2022 Paper of the Year Award: Transgender and nonbinary activism among social work students in the U.S.: The role of ally behavior and a critical orientation to social justice
- Research subcontract, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System, Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (RFA-PS-11-001), $10,000
- University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work Research and Scholarship Grant Award, The embodiment and experiences of gender euphoria among transgender and nonbinary communities, $5,750
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Select Presentations
- Holloway, B. T., Walls, N. E., Harrop, E. N., Kynn, J., & Call, J. (2024, January). Telling a different story: Highlighting gender euphoria in transgender and nonbinary communities [Roundtable accepted for presentation]. Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference, Washington, DC.
- Call, J., & Holloway, B. T. (2023, October). Examining connections between healthcare access and mutual aid among transgender and nonbinary people [Paper presentation]. Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting, Atlanta, GA.
- Atteberry-Ash, B., Walls, N. E., Holloway, B. T., Call, J., Gerke, D. R., & Greenfield, J. C. (2023, October). Re-imagining healthcare: An ideal healthcare system for transgender and gender diverse individuals [Paper presentation]. Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting, Atlanta, GA.
- Blackwell, B., Holloway, B.T., Jean, Q., Matos, T., & Strus, G. (2022, October). Listen, learn, act: Conversations about equity, diversity, and inclusion related to gender identity, The Broadway League, New York, NY.
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Select Publications
- Harrop, E., Hecht, H. K., Harner, V., Call, J., & Holloway, B. T. (2023). “How do I exist in this body … that’s outside of the norm.” Trans and nonbinary experiences of conformity, coping, and connection in atypical anorexia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(2), Article 1156. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021156
- Holloway, B. T. (2023). Highlighting trans joy: A call to practitioners, researchers, and educators. Health Promotion Practice, 24(4), 612–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399231152468
- Holloway, B. T., Gerke, D. R., Call, J., Hostetter, C. R., Atteberry-Ash, B., Greenfield, J., & Walls, N. E. (2022). “The doctors have more questions for us”: Geographic differences in healthcare access and health literacy among transgender and nonbinary individuals. Qualitative Social Work, 22(6), 1073–1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250221128000
- Holloway, B. T., Hostetter, C. R., Morris, K., Kynn, J., & Kilby, M. (2023). “We are all we have”: Envisioning the future of mutual aid from queer and trans perspectives. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 50(1), 155–180. https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.4693
Stephanie Nisle-Mikos, MA, LPC
Doctoral candidate Stephanie Nisle-Mikos has a BA in psychology from the University of Illinois and a MA in clinical mental health counseling with a specialization in addictions and adolescents from the University of Denver. Clinically, she has spent the past four years working as a licensed school-based therapist at a Colorado Title 1 elementary school, where she assesses mental health diagnoses and provides individual, group and family therapy. Throughout her time in the GSSW doctoral program, she has been the lead instructor for MSW courses in clinical skills and human behavior and the social environment; she has also assisted or co-facilitated classes on evidence for practice and positive community and youth development. Previously, she worked as a research assistant in multiple labs analyzing intervention research of an afterschool program, conducting youth-led action research, assessing career equity among students in higher education, and evaluating the effectiveness of residential substance abuse treatment facilities. Stephanie has presented her work nationally and has published research on student empowerment, youth voice and critical consciousness, first-generation college students, substance abuse, and multiculturalism. Her scholarship focuses on youth empowerment and youth voice in inequitable school contexts. Her dissertation draws on mixed methods to examine how student–teacher relationships, shared power and decision-making, and sense of community can facilitate feelings of empowerment for students in high-poverty schools. Stephanie hopes to conduct research that amplifies the voices of students in these communities, doing so in a way that honors their experiences and perspectives.
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Research Interests/Areas of Emphasis
- Student empowerment and student voice
- Educational inequities
- Positive youth development
- Clinical work with children and youth
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Dissertation
- Changing the Narrative: Student Empowerment in Unequal School Contexts
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Select Grants, Fellowships & Awards
- National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC) Minority Fellowship Program for Addictions Counselors, $18,000
- University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work First-Year Doctoral Fellowship, $4,500
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Select Presentations
- Nisle, S., & Anyon, Y. (2021, January). The relationships between school poverty rates and young people’s perceptions of empowerment [Poster presentation]. Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference (virtual conference).
- Nisle, S., Combs, K., Taussig, H. (2020, January). Exogenous predictors of substance use in a sample of maltreated youth with child welfare involvement [Oral presentation]. Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference, Washington, DC.
- Nisle, S., Bender, K., Brydon, D., Shapiro, V., & Anyon, Y. (2019, January). Integrating empirically-based prevention strategies and empowerment practices in schools [Roundtable]. Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA.
- Garriott, P. O., Chao, H., Faris, E., Galluzzo, J., Hadjeasgari, C., & Nisle, S. (2017, August). Social class research in vocational psychology: A 10 year content analysis [Poster presentation]. 2017 American Psychological Association Convention, Washington, D.C.
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Select Publications
- Callahan, S., LoSasso, A., Olson, B., Beasley, C., Nisle, S., Campagna, K., & Jason, L. A. (2015). Income generation in recovering heroin users: A comparative analysis of legal and illegal earnings. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 54(5), 338–349. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2015.1043479
- Garriott, P. O., & Nisle, S. (2018). Stress, coping, and perceived academic goal progress in first-generation college students: The role of institutional supports. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 11(4), 436–450. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000068
- Jimenez, C., Schofield-Clark, L., Kennedy, H., Nisle, S., Engle, C., Matyasic, S., & Anyon, Y. (2021). The art of youthful restraint: Negotiating youth–adult relationships in digital media literacy. Learning, Media, and Technology, 46(2), 190–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2021.1888118
- Nisle, S., & Anyon, Y. (2023). The relationship between school poverty rates and students’ perceptions of empowerment: Student–staff relationships, equitable roles, & classroom sense of community. Applied Developmental Science, 27(3), 269–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2022.2061490
