October 29, 2024
Researchers secure $2.5 million to advance groundbreaking sexual violence prevention program
Two University of Windsor professors will further their innovative work in sexual assault resistance education thanks to a $2.5 million investment from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Charlene Senn, a professor of psychology and women’s and gender studies, and Sara Crann, an adjunct professor of psychology, will use the funding to expand the Girls - Flip the Script with EAAA program, a sexual assault resistance initiative designed for high school-aged girls across Canada. The funding is part of a larger $14.5 million federal initiative to prevent youth dating violence.
Charlene Senn: Distinguished University Professor
Dr. Charlene Senn has served the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in the fields of Social Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies with distinction for over 30 years.
She holds two of the highest honours in the Canadian academic community: a Tier One CIHR Canada Research Chair in Sexual Violence and was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.She holds two of the highest honours in the Canadian academic community: a Tier One CIHR Canada Research Chair in Sexual Violence; and was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Dr. Senn is the quintessential scholar activist whose research and teaching not only enriches the intellectual lives of her students, but also enhances and improves their safety from sexual violence. Her trailblazing EAAA (Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act) sexual assault resistance program has been shown to significantly reduce attempted and completed rapes amongst university aged women. This groundbreaking research has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was covered by the New York Times, and was featured as cutting-edge work from Canada as part of the United Nations World Psychology Day in 2021.
Dr. Senn’s research has been awarded over $11 million in external funding and has resulted in approximately 70 peer-reviewed publications, several of which are co-authored with her students. She has supervised over 50 doctoral and master’s students along with three postdoctoral fellows and has served on over 80 graduate committees. She is a pathbreaking mentor whose practice is firmly rooted in equitable, diverse, inclusive and decolonizing practice and has been recognized through prestigious faculty, university and national teaching awards.
Dr. Senn has been invited to speak on over 75 occasions in New Zealand, Brazil, Australia, and across North America. She has been cited over 4,500 times and is the recipient of several national and international research awards. Her research has led to the creation of our own university’s successful Bystander and Flip the Script (EAAA) programs that teach our students how to recognize and prevent sexual violence amongst themselves and their peers. These programs have helped propel the University of Windsor to the top of national rankings for sexual violence prevention and support and have been adopted and adapted by numerous universities in Canada as well as in the United States and globally.
Dr. Senn’s career as a teacher, researcher, advocate, and trailblazer has been exemplary, immensely impactful and truly inspirational. She is most worthy of the rank of Distinguished University Professor.
Post-doctoral fellow in social work receives royal honour
Ann De Shalit, a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Social Work, has received the 2024 Alice Wilson Award from the Royal Society of Canada.
The award recognizes women of outstanding academic qualifications in the arts and humanities, social sciences, or science who are entering a career in scholarship or research at the post-doctoral level. Dr. De Shalit was one of three academics recognized for their research.
Advisors to provide support to students
New support advisors will help provide counsel to students experiencing trauma as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, says Provost and Vice-President Academic, Robert Aguirre.
“We have recognized that the current humanitarian crisis is challenging for many of us on campus, particularly for those members of groups who have been most directly impacted,” Dr. Aguirre says. “We are pleased to announce that two members of our faculty have stepped forward in this critical time to act as supports for students.”
Riham Al-Saadi, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, will serve as the Palestinian Student Support Advisor. She completed all her studies at the University of Windsor: a bachelor of science in behaviour, cognition, and neuroscience; and master’s and PhD degrees in social work. A Palestinian-Canadian whose family sought refuge in Lebanon in 1948, Dr. Al-Saadi focused her doctoral dissertation on immigrant and refugees’ acculturation process and her positionality as a Palestinian with immigrant and refuge milestones.
Ira Lawrence Cohen serves as the Jewish Student Support Advisor. He is a sessional lecturer in the Odette School of Business, teaching courses in the Master of Management program, including international business and strategy management.
School of Social Work names new Director
The School of Social Work was delighted to announce earlier this month that Dr. Wayne Ambrose-Miller is the new Director of the school. He is very familiar with the school and its programs as he was the Field Education Coordinator for the Master of Social Work for Working Professionals program.
Dean Cheryl Collier and social work faculty and students offer sincere thanks to Dr. Wansoo Park for leading the School as its Acting Director since July 1st.
Dr. Ambrose-Miller has worked as a social worker for over twenty-five years in a variety of settings, most recently as a clinical social worker at a family health team in St. Catharines, Ontario providing mental health services within a primary care setting. Much of his past clinical experience has been in the healthcare sector both in Canada and the United States providing clinical social work services in areas such as primary care, mental health, emergency medicine, neonatology, palliative care, HIV/AIDS, and geriatrics.
“We educate the social work leaders of tomorrow. Our School is dedicated to generating knowledge and educating advocates for individuals, families, and communities around the world,” says Ambrose-Miller. “Our faculty are internationally renowned for excellence in education, scholarship, research, and we take as our mandate the most vulnerable in society.”
He completed his PhD in 2013 through the Faculty of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University. His dissertation research explored men’s influences on their fathering practices. Throughout his doctoral studies, he focused on father involvement issues and his research looked at the topic through several lenses, including social policy and cultural factors that impact fathering. In 2013, he was a Strategic Training Fellow in Interdisciplinary Primary Health Care Research in the TUTOR-PHC (Transdisciplinary Understanding and Training on Research – Primary Health Care) program. In that year, he began studying the collaborative practices of mental health providers and family physicians within family health teams. He has since presented and published on that topic and continues to pursue research in this area.
By combining leading-edge research with community engagement programs, the School of Social Work creates an exceptional learning environment for over 800 undergraduate and graduate Social Work students. With the help of more than 350 agencies and government partners, over 400 students provide community services through field internship activities each year. The result is symbiotic benefits for students, not-for-profit organizations, and most importantly, the people they serve.
Everyone is excited for Dr. Ambrose-Miller's leadership and vision for the school to begin.
Practicum provides psychotherapy to refugees settling in Windsor
A partnership with the Multicultural Council of Windsor-Essex that sees the Psychological Services and Research Centre provide free mental health services for refugees has multiple benefits, says professor Chantal Boucher.
A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Boucher supervises the Advanced Adult Psychotherapy Practicum, which brings doctoral students of psychology together with refugee clients struggling with social, cultural, emotional, psychological, and adjustment difficulties.
Book shares experiences of mental health professional
In her new book, Lessons from an Early Career Therapist: Managing Mistakes, Missteps, and Other Minor Disasters, released Oct. 8, clinical psychology professor Dana Ménard provides a guide for novice therapists and validation for those further along in the profession.
“Before I took on the professor job at the University of Windsor, I was a full time practising clinical psychologist for about eight years,” says Dr. Ménard. “So, the new book is about that phase of my life and my experiences in graduate school as well.”
Local production made its hometown premiere Saturday
After an award-winning tour through festivals across Europe, the U.S., and Canada, Vampire Zombies… From Space! came home for its local premiere on Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Windsor International Film Festival.
The genre-bending comedy-horror claimed the Best Feature Film Award at the Fright Nights Film Festival in Austria and both the audience choice and student jury awards at the Ravenna Nightmare Festival in Italy.
“These accolades solidify the film’s growing reputation as a fan favourite on the festival circuit,” says writer-director Mike Stasko (BA 2002), a professor in the Department of Communication, Media, and Film.
Coming Events
Classical Faculty Recital, Sunday, November 3, 2:30pm
Dr. Nicholas Papador and the Heartland Marimba Quartet
Free Lecture-Recital,Tuesday, November 12, 7:30pm
First Annual HRG Tribute to Dr. Catherine Hundleby
Justice and Argument: the Legacy of Catherine E. Hundleby
Thursday November 28, 6:00 pm
Green Bean Cafe, 2330 Wyandotte St. West
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