College of Health and Human Services

Questions like “Why am I here?” and “What is the meaning of life?” are essential inquiries in many people’s lives. The intimacy and importance of such topics often leads their discussion to be limited.

Social work professor Jim Dudley is trying to change that. It is precisely because of their intimacy and power to heal that spirituality and religion must become more closely connected with the helping process, he stated.

Susan McCarter has one of those personalities that draws one in. Even when she’s giving an academic presentation, the School of Social Work professor is warm, engaging and almost relentlessly cheerful. Still, when she starts talking about her research, her audience — regardless of its size or composition — often becomes visibly uncomfortable. 

The UNC Charlotte Gerontology Program celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this year and took the opportunity to help state leaders roll out North Carolina’s first plan to comprehensively address dementia.

The UNC Charlotte colleges of Education and Health and Human Services are partnering with the nonprofit Aldersgate retirement community to establish the Center for Health, Education and Opportunity, an outpost directed at reshaping Charlotte’s eastside community.

The 6,000-square-foot center is the first venture of an overall master plan to improve the physical and economic health of the area.

Public health sciences professor Beth Racine is working with a local childcare center to teach young children to eat well and stay active.

An unfolding partnership between an interdisciplinary team at UNC Charlotte and the Camino Community Center is helping to address the mental health needs of Charlotte’s Latino community.

Lori Thomas, an associate professor in the School of Social Work, will moderate the panel discussion “Homelessness in Charlotte.”

This free event, sponsored by the Levine Museum of the New South, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, June 9. Register to attend online.

Commencement was a family affair for nursing graduate Samantha Whitley and her mother Candace Yow.

Whitley, 21, originally thought about pursuing a law career; however, she began work as a certified nursing assistant at Novant Health Presbyterian and realized she liked caring for people, according to an article in the Charlotte Observer.

Lyndie Forthofer, a veteran public health researcher, was named recently as the new chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences in the College of Health and Human Services.

Most recently, Forthofer was director of the Division of Epidemiology at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. In a 10-year career at USC, Forthofer also directed an interdisciplinary research unit, the Institute for Families in Society, and was a co-investigator in USC’s CDC-funded Prevention Research Center.

The School of Social Work and Department of Special Education and Child Development announce the approval of a joint certificate program in early childhood mental health (ECMH). This program, which requires 15 graduate hours, focuses on children birth to five years of age and their families.

Graduates of the certificate program will be able to: