The Provost’s Office joined forces with the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and the Office of International Student and Scholar Advising to bring Nataliia Gusak, a Ukrainian scholar from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, to the College for the 2022-23 academic year. Gusak is serving as a faculty fellow at Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s Center for Child and Family Wellbeing.
The idea of bringing Gusak to Â鶹ÊÓƵ originated with Professor Emeritus of Social Work Jim Martin, who had come to know Gusak as part of an international collaboration on military and veteran social work.
While waiting for State Department approval over the summer, Gusak, Martin, and Associate Professor of Social Work Cindy Sousa offered Ukrainian social workers a seven-week webinar program focused on support for their work in Ukraine during this time of war.
Gusak's work focuses on community-based mental health services for vulnerable populations (children, victims of human trafficking, internally displaced persons, veterans, and their families, women in their perinatal period, Romani). While at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, she plans to continue working with Sousa on a study about Ukrainian families functioning in wartime.
"I love the Â鶹ÊÓƵ community," says Gusak, whose family remains in Ukraine. "Life here is not easy but I have amazing people in the College supporting me."