Susan Warfield, LICSW
HELP Center Director
Brief background
I began my professional career working in group homes with abused, neglected and later autistic children and adolescents. Upon completing my MSW I worked for 7 years in the Denver Public Schools, serving inner city schools with highly diverse populations. Prior to entering higher education I owned my own private practice as a clinical therapist, also in Denver, Colorado. It was the work I did with college students as a therapist that led me to do a national search for higher education positions, a search that led me first to North Carolina and eventually to my position with the SPHC at the U.
What do you like about working with student parents?
This is by far the most rewarding work I have ever done and that is saying a great deal considering I have spent my entire twenty plus year career working with children and families in various settings. I admire our parents more than any group of individuals I have ever worked with. Their resiliency, courage to sacrifice their own needs and desires for their children and dedication to their academic careers inspire me every day. It is also a great deal of fun to have a job where, even though we serve the adult parents, we still get to play with the little ones and hold a few babies now and then. I love my job and never have a day when I am not excited to get to work. |
Contact Susan at:
20 Appleby Hall
(612) 625-0825
warfi002@umn.edu
Web site |
Jerri Clark Wagner, LGSW
Direct Service Program Coordinator
Brief background
I graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Theatre and minors in Women's Studies and Sociology. After graduation, I relocated to Chicago. While in Chicago, I worked as an AmeriCorps member in a Chicago Public School on the west side, where I taught arts integration in K-8th grade classrooms. I received my Master's in Social Work at the University of Chicago. During graduate school, I worked at Northwestern University's Children and Family Justice Center, the Chicago YWCA, and the REALITY theatre program. After my graduate work, I coordinated two statewide youth violence prevention programs at the Illinois Center for Violence Prevention for 3 years, served as the board co-chair for the Chicago Girls' Coalition, and coordinated a service-learning program with Hamilton Wings, an arts-based non-profit. Before relocating to Minneapolis, I traveled for 4 1/2 months in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and Europe.
What do you like about working with student parents? Every day, I come to work energized and motivated because of the people I work with. I think student parents are among the most resilient population of people because they are truly recognizing and fulfilling their potential. Since I was raised by a single mom (who wasn't able to attend college herself), I know that a college degree was among the best gifts she has ever given me. Student parents who get their degree in college are not only giving themselves a gift, but they are giving their children a gift because it will be expected that their children will attend college themselves. Their kids will go to college without question; it will be one of the givens in their lives. That's beautiful.
|
Contact Jerri at:
66 Appleby Hall
(612) 626-0824
Wagne472@umn.edu
|
