SSW Welcomes New Faculty, Announces New Appointments

School of Social Work Dean Gail Steketee is pleased to announce that University of South Carolina Assistant Professor Yoonsook Ha will join the School as Assistant Professor of Social Welfare Policy, and current faculty Luz Marilis Lòpez and Lisa Moore have been appointed Clinical Associate Professor and Clinical Assistant Professor, respectively.

In addition to her work at the University of South Carolina, Ha served as research affiliate for the Institute for Families in Society at the University of South Carolina, and as visiting scholar with the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Ha received her bachelor’s degree in social welfare from Kyungpook National University (Korea), a master’s degree in social welfare from Seoul National University (Korea), and a master’s and doctoral degree in social welfare from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Ha’s research interests include social welfare policy specific to child and family policy; child care and child support; and policy analysis, program evaluation and methodology.

Ha’s academic work includes five articles; six government reports; nine paper and poster presentations; and has a number of articles under review. Her work led to a research opportunity program grant as principle investigator for a study on childcare among low-income families in South Carolina, and she received the IRP Graduate Fellow Research Award from the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The School also announced the appointments of Moore as Clinical Assistant Professor, and Lòpez as Clinical Associate Professor.

Moore received her master’s degree in social work from Smith College School of Social Work and a doctoral degree from California Institute of Integral Studies. Moore’s research and practice interests include individual, couples, and family therapy, with a clinical focus on working with black families, LGBTQ people of color, and multi-racial families. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Kinship House in Oregon since June 2008.

López received her master’s degree in social work from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a master’s degree in international public health and doctoral degree in social work from Tulane University.  López’s interests are focused in the areas of substance abuse, trauma due to violence, diverse populations, Latino culture and HIV/AIDS prevention and group work.  In 2010, López received the Women of Courage Award for contributions to education in Massachusetts from La Alianza Hispana.

-Mackenzie Kreitler