Sasha Hazen Aaronson, MSW, MPA, ABD

Sasha Aaronson, MSW, MPA, ABD is an anti-racist social worker who has taught in the School of Social Work at Sacred Heart University since 2018. In this role, she has been a pioneer of the MSW program from its inception to its successful launch. She has served as the Adjunct Coordinator, Chair of the Education Review Committee, and serves on several other committees that are aligned with social justice and committed to excellence for the overall graduate student experience. Professor Aaronson is an active contributor to enhancing programming and curriculum as she brings more than a decade of teaching experience and service within higher education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as efficacy across various teaching platforms and modalities. Before fully transitioning to academia, Professor Aaronson’s practice experience included both clinical and macro-level social work within the child welfare system, in the role of school social worker and as a Program Director for AmeriCorps, overseeing school-based interventions and capacity building in high need areas impacted by systemic barriers, institutionalized racism, and mechanisms of oppression. Her work then and now is deeply rooted in anti-racism and anti-oppression, grounded in critical theory and the pursuit of justice and equity.
Along with her MSW, Professor Aaronson holds a master’s degree in public administration, which increases her capacity to engage in integrated social work practice and is currently all but dissertation towards her PhD in Social Work.. In addition to engaging in grassroots advocacy at the frontline and supporting multiple social justice issues faced by the communities she serves and is dedicated to, her research interests include social work ethics, sexuality, masculinity and colonialism in Jamaica, the impact of social-emotional learning on school success, and secondary traumatic stress in school social workers.