The —housed in the University’s School of Education—has received a $1.8 million gift to further support student scholarships through the Genovese Social Work Scholars Program. The scholarships are named for , G’83, G’13, Ph.D., associate teaching professor and graduate master of social work (M.S.W.) director, in recognition of her teaching, student support and service in the community.

The new gift, which is the largest scholarship investment ever made to the School of Social Work, provides $1 million for a permanent, endowed scholarship fund; $500,000 through a Syracuse Promise funding match that will expand the endowment’s reach; and a pledge of a further $300,000 in current-use funds to provide immediate support for incoming M.S.W. students. The donation builds on a pilot gift of $300,000 that currently supports 13 .

The gift helps the anonymous donors realize their vision of expanding access, reducing financial barriers and supporting the next generation of social workers; expanding the population of social workers during a national shortage; and supporting students who demonstrate academic excellence, leadership and dedication to community-centered practice.

“I thank the donors for their steadfast commitment to the School of Social Work and to the profession, and I applaud their deserved recognition of Professor Genovese,” says School of Education Dean . “This gift will catalyze our efforts to recruit urgently needed social work professionals. It not only creates more access to the profession, it is also a tangible way of telling our students that we believe in you.”

, associate professor and director of social work, says the donation supports students who, in turn, “support the most vulnerable among us.”

“Genovese Scholarships represent hope and opportunity for talented students who are committed to community-centered practice,” she says. “Now, even more scholars will graduate prepared to address our most urgent societal needs, and they will do so with less debt and more freedom to choose meaningful public service careers.”

Genovese says the support for the scholarship program establishes the University as a national leader in social work education and workforce development.

“It reinforces our ability to prepare graduates who address mental health care, veterans’ services, elder care, substance abuse and other urgent societal needs,” she says. “I am deeply moved that this program bears my name, but what truly matters is what it makes possible for our students. I am so proud of our outstanding scholars, who are making a significant difference in our community.”

’11, faculty director for online programs and strategic initiatives, School of Education; associate teaching professor, School of Social Work; and Genovese Scholars advisor, says the donation enables the School of Social Work to “recruit and prepare more students who are called to public service in places such as VA hospitals, high-needs schools and community health facilities.”

“In terms of widening access to professional degrees, promoting student excellence through experiential learning and amplifying community impact, the goals and vision of our donors align perfectly with those of the University,” he says.

The Genovese Scholars Program is open to all residential M.S.W. applicants pursuing either traditional or advanced standing tracks. Candidates should first apply for the and then express interest in a Genovese Scholarship by contacting Adrienne Renfroe, coordinator of graduate admissions, recruitment and student services, at alrenfro@syr.edu or 315.443.1443.

Current Genovese Scholars and Community-centered Internships

• Rebecca Anderson
  Assisting clients from Syracuse-area hospitals and nursing homes access mental health, housing and other services. Recently, Anderson helped organize a Thanksgiving meal drive for homeless clients.
• Asher Baykitch ’25
  Interning at Helio Health, which provides treatment for mental health issues and substance abuse. Recently, he assisted with the .

• Kristen Boyd
  Serving the Syracuse’s Center for Community Alternatives, including performing intakes for clients in the Emerging Young Adults Domestic Violence Court.
• Maya Carter ’25
  Working at the Syracuse Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the Health Care for Homeless Veterans program. Recently, she assisted with the .
• Caden Denslow ’25
  Assisting US Probation and Pretrial Services, identifying mitigating factors for persons who have committed a federal crime. Denslow is also a field supervisor for Íř±¬ĂĹ Ambulance, and recently he assisted with the .
• Lily Grenis
  Helping Syracuse Jewish Family Services provide programs for adults with dementia or developmental disabilities. Recently, she coordinated the annual campus Fall Food Drive for Huntington Family Centers.
• Alayna Higdon
  Interning at Vera House, where she assists with educational, clinical and other services for victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
• Amanda (“AK”) Keeler
  Assisting the College of Law’s Veterans Legal Clinic with services to at-risk and unhoused veterans, including VA benefit applications, discharge status upgrades and legal advocacy related to service-connected injuries. Recently, she coordinated the annual campus Fall Food Drive for Huntington Family Centers and assisted with the .
• Meg Kiesa
  Targeted Case Manager for Liberty Resources, which provides services to people with developmental disabilities, mental health challenges and substance abuse issues. Kiesa also volunteers with Seventh Heaven Pet Recuse.
• Alexis Maag ’25
  Human Resources specialist at Helio Health, which provides treatment for mental health issues and substance abuse. Maag also volunteers with Sunshine Horses, a rescue facility for horses in need that works with youth and adult volunteer programs.
• Katie Pascale
  Interning with Peaceful Schools, which offers social-emotional learning in schools serving high-needs communities. Pascale is also leading weekly community restorative circles for young female athletes.
• Shakir Thomas
  Coaching youth basketball at Nottingham High School. Recently, Thomas assisted with the .
• Tyler Vitallo
  Currently, Vitallo is a bell ringer for the Salvation Army Christmas Drive, and recently he assisted with the .

On a mid-October morning, the stately chambers of the Onondaga County Legislature were filled with students and faculty from the School of Social Work mingling with lawmakers and community leaders.

They were gathered for the James L. Stone Legislative Policy Day, an annual event founded 26 years ago by Professor Emeritus James L. Stone ’64, former New York State Commissioner of Mental Health, who sought to give social work students the opportunity to connect with the policymakers shaping the systems that affect their field.

The 2025 event, co-sponsored by the School of Education (which houses the School of Social Work), brought together expertise and insight around the theme, “Undermining Youth Potential: The Hidden Costs of Disinvestment in Educational Support Structures and Services.” The focus was inspired by recent federal funding cuts and mandated changes affecting a wide range of social service systems.

Collective Commitment

“Legislation is more than words on paper,” said Associate Teaching Professor in his opening remarks. “It reflects our collective commitment to justice, equity, and opportunity.”

Smith reminded the audience that social workers are often the link between policy decisions and the communities those decisions affect. “This day is about education, collaboration and action,” he said. “It’s about making sure our voices are heard and that policymakers understand their decisions matter.”

Following introductions from Associate Dean , Director of Social Work and Onondaga County Legislature Chair Timothy Burtis, students presented an overview of the recent and dramatic changes in policy and funding that framed the day’s agenda. Their presentation highlighted the potential consequences of these cuts—from staff reductions and fewer mental health services to the loss of after-school and enrichment programs that support students’ well-being and development.

Assemblyman William Magnarelli (D-129) followed with a detailed breakdown of where the rollbacks would take effect across New York State and their anticipated impact on families. He emphasized the cascading and intersecting implications of cuts to mental health initiatives—many of which were created in response to school shootings—along with before- and after-school programs that are vital not only for students but also for working parents. He also cited cuts to food assistance programs such as SNAP and health care programs for uninsured and immigrant populations.

People and Relationships

The day’s keynote speaker, Rachael Gazdick ’93, former executive director of and current CEO of , drew on her experience leading one of the largest after-school providers in New York City to make a case for centering people—and relationships—to create social and political change.

Gazdick defined supportive services—including out-of-school programming and the range of initiatives included in —as foundational to equitable societies. “Education is essential, but it can’t stand alone,” she said. “Not when mental health, family stability and freedom from barriers to participation determine who truly has access to learning.”

NY Edge serves 35,000 students across 140 schools and provides after-school programs that address academics, enrichment and wellness. Gazdick shared that her organization’s model connects learning to real-world experiences that help students envision themselves in the professions shaping the world. “When students are given access, guidance and belief, they rise,” she said. “And when they rise, our schools, our cities and our nation rise with them.”

Ultimately, her message was one of empowerment, affirming the value and impact of the professions social work students are preparing for. “It’s the work you do that defines us as a society—not policy, not who’s in the White House,” she said. “You are the change makers, and it begins when we refuse to accept the status quo.”

Gazdick emphasized that creating change requires more than identifying problems. She urged attendees to also envision solutions and cultivate the skills to enact them. “Policy is about people, relationships,” she explained, “and the courage to imagine something better.”

Action and Advocacy

Throughout the day, the theme of advocacy resonated strongly. Speakers repeatedly emphasized that social workers play a critical role in shaping policy and promoting equity. That message was central to State Senator Rachel May’s (D-48) remarks, which highlighted the importance of practitioners’ on-the-ground experience in guiding effective responses to the inevitable cutbacks that she foresaw.

“We want to do everything we can to support students through counseling, after-school programs, and opportunities that let them thrive,” she observed. “New York State will need to be strategic—and we need your expertise to guide us.”

The value of that experience also came through in the two panels that closed out the day. Social work faculty joined other professionals to share insight from a range of initiatives centering support for students and families in the area, such as the collaboration between SUNY Upstate Medical University and the Syracuse City School District, aiming to establish school-based clinics, develop training pipelines for mental health professionals, and cultivate counselors from a wide range of backgrounds.

When panelists were asked to describe an idealized scenario of the future, Associate Professor noted that the current funding crisis is a “manufactured” one, rooted in political priorities rather than a true lack of resources. The vision he described was of a cultural shift that would truly value caregivers for their indispensable work.

It was a vision fitting to the spirit of the day, which highlighted the importance of social workers and affirmed the necessity of their intervention in the spaces between policy and lived lives.

Story by Sarah H. Griffin

Upstate New York’s Wayne County Partnership, which includes the University’s , will benefit from a multi-million-dollar investment that will help it and six other communities across the United States reach their economic mobility goals by expanding enrichment and career-focused opportunities for young people.

The Wallace Foundation’s explores how schools, nonprofits and other entities can strengthen school enrichment efforts, such as afterschool and summer programs. The foundation anticipates investing approximately $6 to $10 million into Wayne County over the course of the initiative.

The is a consortium of more than 50 agencies, school districts and organizations that seeks to improve the quality of life for residents of the county, which encompasses the communities of Sodus and Palmyra.

Among the partnership projects that will benefit from the grant is and its STEADY Program, which connects high school students to local employers so they can gain workplace experience. , associate professor of social work, helps to collect, manage and analyze data so schools can track progress and measure outcomes.

“The Wayne County Partnership and Wayne County Community Schools have a truly novel and intricate foundation of cross-sector collaborations that spans schools, youth programs, community agencies and local government,” says Heath. “This investment from the Wallace Foundation will provide much-needed infrastructure and support so that this high-need rural county can provide the opportunities young people need and deserve.”

The University’s  School of Social Work is “excited to continue to push our community-research partnership with Wayne County forward and to help improve the lives of youth in Wayne County and beyond,” Heath says.

The Wayne County Partnership was selected following an extensive process that drew interest from more than 1,700 communities. The initiative also will fund partnerships across California, Colorado, Ohio, Tennessee and Utah.

The Advancing Opportunities for Adolescents initiative aims to provide young people in the middle through early high school years with greater access to out-of-school opportunities that spark new interests, skills and an awareness of potential future careers. Additionally, adolescents and their families gain access to formalized support to help them navigate across systems to find programs and resources they need.

“The Wayne County Partnership’s commitment to and sharp focus on increasing access to opportunity for youth in rural settings stood out to us and is one reason we invited them to participate in this initiative,” says Gigi Antoni, vice president of youth development at The Wallace Foundation. “The partnership’s STEADY Work program—offering apprenticeships that build personal, professional, and transferable skills—could serve as a national out-of-school time program model.”

Jay Roscup, director of Wayne County Community Schools and co-chair of the Wayne County Partnership, says The Wallace Foundation is “asking the right questions at the right time.”

“The partnership has created an ecosystem where our community schools efforts thrive,” he says. “The cooperative intent of our partners has led to the betterment of individual programs, accurate installation of proven practices, and innovation of custom programs that fit our community.”

When those who work in community school systems explain the impact of this approach in public education, they tell stories about the students they have worked with.

For example, that of the middle school student who came to school with broken eyeglasses held together with tape, until coordinated efforts between school staff and outside agencies made it possible for her to replace them.

In another, how two young siblings navigating the complexity of foster care received consistent care, support and the resources they needed thanks to the collaboration of their school with state and community organizations.

New Knowledge

These stories reflect a vision for the role of schools that extends beyond academics alone. Community schools, which are often described as a strategy rather than a model, use the existing infrastructure of schools as hubs of community development to coordinate services, programs and opportunities that support whole families and communities.

“This strategy recognizes that children learn best when their families have access to resources such as health care, food assistance, housing and job training,” says , associate professor in the School of Social Work, which was recently incorporated into the . “Community schools bring those supports into alignment with academic priorities, coordinating the full range of services that young people and their families need to thrive.”

Since joining Syracuse in 2018, Heath has focused much of his research and service on strengthening community school systems in Central New York (CNY).

One of his most significant partnerships is with Wayne County Community Schools, a rural coalition spanning 11 school districts between Syracuse and Rochester. Wayne County initiatives include programs such as STEADY Work, which connects high school students with local employers so they can gain workplace experience and skills, as well as a range of programs that focus on health care and food access.

One of the ways Heath supports this work has been through designing and managing a countywide data infrastructure, so that schools within the district can track progress and measure outcomes. “The reporting requirements for community school initiatives are an enormous lift for practitioners,” Heath says. “Our role has been to take some of that burden off their shoulders while also building a system that can generate new knowledge about what works for young people, under what conditions and in which communities.”

Hyper Local

Inherent to the definition of community schools is a place-based approach to solutions. Community schools tend to focus their efforts in a few general areas, including integrating academic and social-emotional supports, enrichment and out-of-school opportunities, and family and community programming, among others.

Which areas are emphasized and how strategies are implemented depends on the specific needs of the school building. For example, in highly populated urban area, where social service agencies have locations, community schools may focus on helping students and families coordinate and streamline their access. In a rural area, where health care services may be prohibitively distant, community schools coordinators might mobilize visits from primary and dental care to the school itself.

Having data about programmatic impact not only helps community schools to access funding and other resources but also facilitates collaboration and flexible adaptation to changing needs and conditions. Jay Roscup, director within Wayne County Community Schools, says “Our goal is to make sure all students have opportunity for a choice-filled path. It’s what communities have done forever, but we have to systematize it—and the data we gather lets us ask the critical questions about our methodologies.”

Beyond Wayne County, Heath has helped convene networks that connect community school leaders across the state. He co-founded the , a collaboration among community school networks along the I-90 corridor.

The group allows school districts and community agencies from across Upstate and Central New York to share successes, challenges, and resources. “The strength of these networks is in the relationships,” Heath says. “It’s about creating spaces where schools and community partners can come together, share goals, and problem-solve as equals.”

This summer, Íř±¬ĂĹ hosted two New York State Community Schools Thruway Coalition conferences that explored lessons learned from community schools in both rural and urban areas, while considering how the strategy can be adapted for rural districts.

Enormous Potential

Heath also plays a key role in the , which includes districts and agencies in Onondaga County and neighboring areas. These regional groups meet regularly to share strategies for integrating mental health services, coordinating after-school programs, and building family engagement.

“Heath has taken the role of facilitator and convener,” says Lura Lunkenheimer, president of , an organization that contracts with the Syracuse City School District to provide community schools coordinators in city schools. “This has allowed everyone else at the table to come together in a neutral setting, helping the collaboration grow organically and without some of the typical barriers that can take place when working to create community impact.”

Heath’s path into community schools was shaped by his earlier work in out-of-school-time (OST) programs—after-school and extracurricular activities—as well as a school-based social worker.

Before becoming a professor, he worked extensively in these spaces, coordinating and directing youth development programs and providing student support services in alternative and mainstream schools. These experiences gave him profound appreciation for a holistic approach to students’ well-being and inspired his interest in the community school approach.

“Community schools are one of the clearest intersections between social work and education,” he says. “Both fields hold enormous potential to create more just and equitable systems within communities.” And, he emphasizes, given the precarious nature of social services and public education in this sociopolitical moment, community schools may be one of the best venues we have to serve children and families.

Story by Sarah Griffin

Over the summer, four academic disciplines focused on preparing students as professionals in the human, health and social services fields (formerly housed in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics) transitioned to new academic homes across the University.

• The now resides in the School of Education.
• Marriage and family therapy joined human development and family science and the united department is now in the .
• The University’s have joined the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Concurrently, the was reimagined as the nation’s first standalone college of sport on a Research 1 campus.

These changes align with the University’s goal of creating academic synergies among, and supporting the continued growth and impact of, human dynamics programs. They also reflect the University’s ongoing commitment to human thriving, one of the areas of strategic excellence outlined in “Leading With Distinction,” the University’s .

The moves were announced in fall 2024 following strategic evaluation by the Human Dynamics Task Force, which was informed by input from students, faculty, staff and community partners. The task force’s goal was to ensure that each human dynamics program is positioned for long-term success, deeper collaboration and greater impact as they transition out of the Falk College and into new schools/colleges for the 2025-26 academic year.

Human Development and Family Science (HDFS)/Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT)

New home: College of Arts and Sciences (both disciplines housed in the Department of Human Development and Family Science)

Degrees offered: B.S., HDFS; M.A., MFT (in-person/online); Ph.D., HDFS; Ph.D., MFT; minors in human development and family science, child and family policy, mindfulness and contemplative studies and gerontology

Why it fits: These disciplines align with the College of Arts and Sciences’ (A&S) commitment to solving global challenges around health and well-being and will provide new avenues for collaboration and creativity. Cross-program partnerships will expand student learning opportunities in health-adjacent fields, drive research innovation and significantly enhance A&S’s collective impact on individual and community well-being. HDFS and MFT are natural additions to such existing A&S departments as psychology, communication sciences and disorders, health humanities, LBGTQ studies, neuroscience and women’s and gender studies.

Bringing these programs into A&S strengthens our commitment to interdisciplinary research and teaching that supports individuals and families across the lifespan. We are excited to welcome faculty and students whose work aligns so closely with our mission.

— College of Arts and Sciences Dean Behzad Mortazavi

Public Health

New home: Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

Degrees offered: B.S., public health; B.S., public health and management (in partnership with the Whitman School of Management); MPH.; MPH/MBA dual program (in partnership with the Whitman School)

Why it fits: Public health’s move to the Maxwell School fits with the school’s academic strategic plan, which includes a focus on addressing health and health disparities. Public health and public policy are highly interrelated, and Maxwell is uniquely positioned to provide evidence-based solutions to the challenges facing public health leaders and practitioners. Opportunities for growth and collaboration will be enhanced across existing external partnerships (such as the public health department’s work with the New York State Department of Health) and within key Maxwell research centers and institutes, such as the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health, Aging Studies Institute and the Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab.

This is a natural fit for the public health department and for the Maxwell School. Adding these experts in global and environmental health, infectious disease and other top public health issues to our community of world-class scholars on population health, aging and health policy, as well as our health scholars across the social sciences, will further enhance our vital voice in the study of health and in the development of health policy.

— Maxwell School Dean David M. Van Slyke

Social Work

New home: School of Education

Degrees offered: B.S.W.; M.S.W. (in-person/online); J.D./M.S.W. (in partnership with the College of Law); social justice minor

Why it fits: The core values of social work—service, social justice, dignity and the worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity and competence—align closely with the School of Education’s mission of mentoring and nurturing the next generations of educators, scholars and leaders who will have meaningful and sustained impact in their communities. The addition of social work to the school brings new possibilities for interdisciplinary research and curriculum development, with social work faculty bringing to the table deep community partnerships, a strong research profile and an enthusiasm for working collaboratively.

I look forward to the new opportunities presented by closer collaboration with programs that share our historical commitments to inclusive pedagogy and practice, as well as to reciprocally valuable partnerships in Central New York. We will benefit from our new colleagues’ expertise in online teaching and their dedication to veterans and military-connected families.

— School of Education Dean Kelly Chandler-Olcott