A Message from Dean Judy Postmus to the SSW Community
I am very pleased to announce that effective June 1, Claire Meringolo, MSW, LCSW-C, is the Acting Director of the Title IV-E Education for Public Child Welfare Program here at the School of Social Work. Claire has devoted her social work career to child welfare and early childhood practice, dating back to being a graduate of the Title IV-E program at the UMB SSW in 2008. Claire has been a Faculty Field Instructor for BSW and MSW Students at the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services since 2017, and she has been part of the development of SHARP modules with the
Center for Restorative Practices. She has been part of the Child Welfare Supervisory Team at Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services for 9 years, and she also supervises Early Childhood Social Workers in various settings in the Baltimore region. Claire is committed to keeping an anti-racist lens while partnering with human service systems to further the practice of social work. I also want to recognize Christopher Wirt, who has been Director for the
past two years and a part of the University of Maryland Title IV-E Program since 2011, where he also served as a seminar leader, trainer, Assistant Director, and Acting Director. Among Professor Wirt’s many contributions, he greatly enhanced training for Title IV-E students, particularly in using motivational interviewing in child welfare settings. As Acting Director, Claire will work in partnership with Assistant Director Donald Vince and the Title IV-E faculty and staff to prepare BSW and MSW social work students for social work practice with families and children in
Maryland’s public child welfare programs. The SSW has partnered with the Maryland Department of Human Services to offer the Title IV-E program for over twenty years. The program strives, through required academic courses, field education assignments, and targeted child welfare training experiences, to impact our state’s achievement of core outcomes of public child welfare services programs of child safety, permanency of family relationships, and child and family well-being.
Please join me in wishing Claire well in her new leadership role.
Judy L. Postmus, PhD, ACSW Dean, University of Maryland School of Social Work
