Congratulations to Dr. Michael Alicea on being chosen by the Miami-Dade Unit of NASW has chosen as its SOCIAL WORK EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR!

Congratulations to Dr. Heidi LaPorte on being chosen by the Broward Unit of NASW has chosen as its SOCIAL WORK EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR!

A round of applause for Dr. Eva Nowakowski-Sims!

During her sabbatical, Dr. Nowakowski-Sims completed two research projects: Weight lifting as an adjunct trauma treatment and Community based crime reduction. She concentrated on finishing written assignments that filled in the gaps in the literature and created a trauma-informed weight training program. In her research, she used a qualitative grounded theory approach to examine how weightlifting contributes to healing. This project was a cross-country investigation done in collaboration with the Justice Resource Institute’s Center for Trauma and Embodiment. Dr. Nowakowski-Sims, as the primary investigator, worked with a team of researchers from throughout the nation to build a theory that described the procedures and components of weight lifting that promote recovery from psychological trauma in the past. Studies on intervention effectiveness are part of the second initiative, which aims to create a body of research supporting the use of weightlifting as a trauma adjunctive therapy. In order to lower crime in the City of Lake Worth Beach, the Bureau of Justice Assistance has established a $100,000 grant for which she was the principal investigator. The subcontract for completing the review in collaboration with the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office was given to Barry University. Dr. Nowakowski-Sims finished the program evaluation during my leave of absence for the three-year period that ended in September 2022.

She also completed a 200-hour certification in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy and multiple trainings on the use of psychedelics in clinical trials.