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School of Social Policy & Practice Teaching Awards
May 8, 2007, Volume 53, No. 33

The 2007 recipients of the School of Social Policy & Practice’s Excellence in Teaching Awards are Dr. Mark Stern, for the standing faculty and Dr. Mary M. Cavanaugh, for the part-time faculty. Recipients of these awards are selected by graduating students and must demonstrate a high level of scholarship in the courses taught; a teaching style that stimulates the students’ interest; a commitment to student learning; respect for students’ personal differences; and a significant and lasting impact on the professional development of students. The awards will be presented at the school’s commencement ceremony on May 14.

Mark Stern
Dr. Mark J. Stern is professor of social welfare and history and co-director of the Urban Studies program. Before joining the School of Social Work’s faculty in 1980, he received his Ph.D. in history from York University (Canada). He collaborated with professor emeritus Dr. June Axinn in developing the required history and philosophy course in the master’s of social work curriculum. Drs. Axinn and Stern co-authored Social Welfare: A History of the American Response To Need which is now in its sixth edition. Dr. Stern has authored or co-authored five books, most recently with Dr. Michael Katz, the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History, One Nation Divisible: What America Was and What It Is Becoming (Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2006). In addition to his work on American social history and the history of social welfare, Dr. Stern and his wife, Susan Seifert, direct the Social Impact of the Arts Project which examines the role of community arts and cultural programs in revitalizing urban neighborhoods.

Mary Cavanaugh
Dr. Mary M. Cavanaugh, a part-time faculty member, is also the associate director of the Ortner-Unity Program on Family Violence in the School of Social Policy & Practice. She has taught courses in research methods, intimate violence, and social policy. Her primary research focus is on the theoretical foundations of intimate partner violence, with a particular interest in examining the origins of violent behavior in male and female offenders, and in designing and testing interventions to deter violence in intimate relationships. She has authored and co-authored a number of articles and book chapters on intimate partner violence, a text with Dean Richard J. Gelles, Current controversies on family violence, and currently has two texts under contract with Oxford University Press: Intimate violence and abuse in families with Dr. Gelles, and Designing, developing, and implementing randomized control trials for Social Work, with Dr. Phyllis Solomon. Dr. Cavanaugh was also the recipient of the School of Social Policy & Practice 2004 Excellence in Teaching Award. She has recently completed a joint doctoral degree in social welfare and criminology at Penn and has accepted a faculty position at University of California–Berkeley, for fall 2007. 

More Teaching Awards from the Law School, School of Design and School of Dental Medicine will be published in the May 22 issue. (There is no issue May 15.)
Almanac - May 8, 2007, Volume 53, No. 33