Social Worker Leaders Celebrating Excellence -Series.

The AASW PhD Webinar Series- Social Work Leaders: Celebrating Excellence

We are delighted to bring you another webinar which is part of the series will take place on Monday the 4th of Dec 2023, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm AEST.

Free for members, join us to celebrate three outstanding AASW Members who have elevated the social work profession through their research. Presenters will commence the session with an introduction to their work and findings and discuss how their research intersects with real world practice, as well as exploring their own career journeys and experiences from their PhDs and beyond. 

Who should attend?

Any member interested in taking up the challenge of completing their PhD

Can't attend live? Your registration includes a copy of the presentation slides and 2 weeks' free access to the event recording.

We are delighted to share that Dr Debbie Plath will be chairing this event.

Presenting at this motivational event will be Dr Anita Morris, Dr Jessica Russ-Smith and

 Dr Timothy Warton.

More about our chairperson and panellists below.

Register now! 

Chairperson:

Dr Debbie Plath completed her PhD in 2000, a month before the birth of her 2nd child. That was a great motivator to get it done! She has worked in social work practice roles in health and local government and as a consultant to human service organisations on strengthening research-practice links. Debbie has had a long career in social work education and held senior social work academic roles at the University of Newcastle and at the Australian Catholic University, where she is an Honorary Professor. Debbie has recently taken on the role of Head of Social Work and Community Services at Ikon Institute. Debbie is also Chair of the Editorial Board for the Australian Social Work journal.

Dr Anita Morris is a social worker with extensive experience across a broad range of sectors and within the domains of research, policy and practice. Dr Morris completed her PhD in 2015, which focused on children’s experiences of safety and resilience in the context of domestic and family violence. She has continued to research with children, publish and present her work locally and overseas. Dr Morris is committed to research that creates opportunity for children and young people to have a say in matters that affect them. She also strives to build passion for social work research, learning and development in others.

Dr Jessica Russ-Smith is a Wiradyuri Wambuul woman, Senior Lecturer and Academic Developer for First Nations Curriculum at Australian Catholic University, an AASW Board Director, ACU Academic Senator and a Social Worker. Throughout her career, Jess has been committed to advancing the social work profession, decolonising higher education, and promoting social justice. Her passion and focus are on creating decolonising, critical learning and practice spaces for students, staff and practitioners which honour and are guided by First Nations sovereign knowledges. Jess’ research and teaching relates to Indigenous sovereignty, embodying sovereignty, decolonisation, decolonising social work and education, decolonising curriculum and higher education, Indigenous social work, ethics, activism, working with Aboriginal children and young people, Positive Behaviour Support Plans , AI and ethics and experiences of Indigenous researchers. Jess is a former Branch President of the ACT Branch Management Committee.

Dr Timothy Warton is a Forensic Social Work practitioner-researcher and is the Senior Manager of Practice and Implementation at Youth Justice NSW. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney and has a private practice predominantly working with adult DFV users and young adults with harmful sexualised behaviour.

In direct practice, his experience is primarily in justice settings with mandated clients, but he has also worked in more voluntary spaces with outpatient AoD cessation groups. Tim has worked extensively in government and non-government settings, as well as working with communities in Indonesia.

Tim has a passion for practice excellence in Youth Justice to ensure the best possible outcomes for young people and their families and communities across the state. His PhD and further authorship has been around the development of criminal identities and how issues of identity can influence direct practice, how gender influences violence amongst adolescent populations, as well as worker skill and techniques in working with populations who use violence and harmful sexualised behaviour.