Brave Ideas for Social Change

GSSW Board of Advisors Vice Chair Richard Lewis discusses the BIPOC Nonprofit Development Center he founded and ways that schools of social work can partner to better serve their communities.

Yesenia Silva Estrada graduated from GSSW’s Western Colorado MSW Program in 2017. Today, she practices as a macro social worker, serving as vice president of planning and chief of staff for Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs. As a first-generation college student born outside of United States and raised in rural Colorado, she has a unique perspective on the role of social work in cultivating critical hope during our current times.

Breast cancer survivor Diane M. Simard is a member of GSSW’s newly established Board of Advisors and a friend to the University of Denver. She has been working to raise awareness about the unique mental health needs of cancer patients and to transform systems to better meet those needs. In 2016, she founded the Center for Oncology Psychology Excellence, or COPE, at the University of Denver Graduate School of Professional Psychology. COPE is now part of their behavioral health psychology curricul

GSSW Assistant Professor Tyrone Hamler discusses his work to advance health equity across the lifespan.

GSSW Professor Johnny Kim is working to expand adolescent mental health care access through approaches such as solution-focused brief therapy, an evidence-based therapy model.

GSSW Clinical Professor Philip Tedeschi extends the concept of social justice to include nonhuman animals, noting that animal, human and environmental well-being are inextricably linked.