The Social Work faculty emphasizes a close mentoring relationship with students and an atmosphere of concern for the educational experience of each individual. As a result, faculty members are available to meet with students on a frequent basis outside of class to discuss academics, professional development, career goals, internships, or any other topics related to the student's educational program.
Three full-time faculty members stress the importance of active engaged learning in the classroom and invite full participation by students in the teaching-learning interaction through such means as group problem-solving, role-playing, case studies, classroom presentations, and interactive exercises, in addition to the more traditional lecture and discussion method. The faculty is highly committed to modeling the use of the strengths perspective in practice and helps students in the social work program develop and utilize their own assets, resources, and capabilities in the practice of generalist social work.
Joan A, Pollack, MSW, LCSW, MHSA, Program Director, Clinical Associate Professor of Social Work. BA, Sacred Heart University; MSW, Fordham University; MHSA, Antioch/New England.
Professor Pollack's specialization in teaching focuses on social welfare policy, programs, and services; generalist practice; family systems; and human behavior. Her practice experience includes working with abused and neglected children, pregnant teens, and drug and alcohol addictions. She has worked extensively as a mental health clinician with children, adolescents, adults, families, and the elderly population; she developed and directed a home for pregnant single women; she served as District Executive Director of Catholic Family Services Stamford, Darien, and Greenwich; and was employed as Director of Fund Development for the Girl Scouts of Housatonic Council. Professor Pollack is an LCSW, a member of the NASW where she is a past president of the Connecticut Chapter, and she is also a member of the Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors' Association.
Professor Pollack taught in the BSW Program at Sacred Heart University as an adjunct faculty member from 1987 through 2007, becoming a full-time faculty member in 2008. She has served as Director of the Baccalaureate Social Work Program since July 2008.
Contact info:
Main Academic Building, Room HC 219
Ph: 203-365-4451
Fax: 203-365-4892
Email: pollackj@sacredheart.edu
Bronwyn Cross-Denny, LCSW, Instructor of Social Work. MSW, Ph.D. Candidate, Fordham University; BS, Western Michigan University
Professor Cross-Denny’s areas of teaching expertise include human behavior in the social environment, social work research, and social justice. She has extensive clinical practice experience working with families, children, adolescents, adults, and couples with a variety of issues including mental health, grief, trauma, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse. Professor Cross-Denny played a leadership role in the Connecticut statewide initiative in response to the events of September 11, 2001.
Professor Cross-Denny taught in the Baccalaureate Social Work Program at Sacred Heart University as an adjunct faculty member for one year before becoming a full-time instructor in 2010. Prior to Sacred Heart, she was an adjunct professor at Fordham University from 2004 to 2010 where she realized her goal of becoming a social work educator and began pursuing her doctoral degree. Her areas of research interest include social and economic justice, effects of oppression and discrimination, culturally competent social work practice, and effective diversity education in social work. Her professional affiliations include: National Association of Social Workers, Council on Social Work Education, Society for Social Work and Research, and American Psychological Association.
Contact Info:
Main Academic Building, Room HC 219
Ph: 203-371-7762
Fax: 203-365-4892
Patricia Carl-Stannard,
MSW, LCSW, Assistant Clinical Professor of Social Work, and Coordinator of Field Education. BSW, Southern Connecticut State University, and MSW, Ohio State University.
Professor Carl-Stannard's specialization in teaching includes: social work practice; human behavior in the social environment; field practicum seminar, as well as, serving as a faculty liaison for students in placement. She maintains a solo private practice treating children, adolescents and adults in individual, couple, family, and group treatment for a wide variety of clinical issues. She also provides school consultation for child/adolescent clients, and parent-child evaluations for court.
Professor Carl-Stannard began her career as a medical social worker at The Children’s Hospital (Columbus, OH) and later Yale-New Haven Hospital. Then after several years in group private practice she joined the SHU BSW faculty full time and taught from 1990-2001. Since that time she has served as an adjunct professor, and now returns to SHU as a full time faculty member again. Professor Carl-Stannard is an active member of NASW and currently serves on the NASW/CT Clinical Social Work Network committee organizing conferences and regional educational events for clinical social workers, as well as serving as a private practice consultant to the NASW/CT community. She was the president of the Connecticut Society for Clinical Social Work (2003-2005), as well as a board member of the Clinical Social Work Federation (national board 2002-2006).
Professor Carl-Stannard was inducted into Phi Alpha the Social Work Honor Society as an honorary member in 2009. She is also a graduate trainee of the New Haven Group Psychotherapy Training institute and the New Haven Psychodrama Institute.
Contact Info:
Main Academic Building, room HC 219
Ph: 203-371-7769
Fax: 203-365-4892
Email:
carl-stannardp@sacredheart.edu
Maggie McCranor, Academic Program Assistant
After 27 years of nursing Maggie came to Sacred Heart in October of 1998 and worked in Institutional Advancement. She became the Program Assistant to the Criminal justice Department in April of 2007. In January of 2008 she also became the Assistant to the Social Work Program.
Contact Info:
Main Academic Building, HC Suite 219
Ph: 203-371-7941
Fax: 203-365-4892
E-Mail: mccranorm@sacredheart.edu