Division of Social Work

Mona Schatz

Professor Emeritus

B.A., Metropolitan State University (formerly Metropolitan State College)
MSW, University of Denver
DSW, University of Pennsylvania

mschatz@uwyo.edu

Social policies and programs including public programs that include family programs, child welfare, child protection, child mental health, juvenile justice, adoption, and community-based youth development; adults and aging adults research; qualitative and community action research approaches; private financial retirement programs and financial health behaviors among older adults; grief and hospice; generalist and advanced generalist research; international social development, social welfare, and social programs; colonization; and social civility

Teaching Philosophy

Joining university students in their "learning and discovery" journey is a special privilege for which I am thankful.  I am passionate to teach the next generations about social work, social development, and global interconnectedness.  I love talking about the historical roots of the social work profession as well as the changing social, economic, and political trends in this new millennium - our learning goal is continuously helping those in need to function more effectively in day-to-day life!  For social work students in particular, our educational goal is to prepare competent social workers who demonstrate a set of practice behaviors that address the needs of those with whom they will be working in their social work career. 

In the classroom experience, getting students prepared for and involved in their own learning are central beacons that I use in designing and implementing any teaching and learning experience.  Being available to students throughout learning activities, e.g., outside the classroom is equally important to me as a teacher.  Understanding that everyone learns differently is an added premise that offers me a deep appreciation for and awareness of different individual learning processes and varied learner expectations that need to be met in the university environment.  I have taught very diverse learning groups such as law enforcement specialists, business professionals, community organizers and planners, and non-profit executives.  In each of these learning arenas, the primary educational principles I use are embodied in an adult learning model - initiating learning by starting where the learner is and designing class instruction by creating learning objectives that direct the learner.

Biosketch

Dr. Schatz, Professor, maintains a regular teaching and research agenda in the Division of Social Work.  She has served as the Director of the Division of Social Work (2006-2010).  Since 1972, Dr. Schatz has worked with children, aging adults, and families.  She has engaged in social work practice across the United States, most consistently in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Wyoming.  Dr. Schatz has an extensive background in practice and training of professionals who are involved with children and families and human services work.  She has served as an expert in court cases in the child protection and child and family practice arenas.

For much of her career, Dr. Schatz and her colleagues have researched, and later introduced, the central tenets of generalist and advanced generalist social work as a perspective for the profession.  In the Encyclopedia of Social Work (2012), the initial research study titled "Milford redefined: A model of initial and advanced generalist social work" has been found to have".helped to forge a conceptual model and pedagogical foundation for generalist and advanced generalist social work practice at a time when more clarity about the content of social work knowledge was needed."  Generalist social work became the academic standard for all undergraduate social work curricula, stated in the Educational Policy Standards of the Council on Social Work Education.

Globally, Dr. Schatz has studied the emergence of social policies and programs in emerging and transitioning democracies.  She has presented professional papers and conference training programs in over two dozen countries including Russia, Albania, Romania, Latvia, Ukraine, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, Brazil, and China.  She has spent many years teaching and working with non-profit agencies and has been a consultant to local, regional and national family and youth development organizations.  She has also served as a consultant in the area of advanced generalist social work education with various schools of social work in the United States.

Nationally, she served on the Council on Social Work Education's Commission on Professional Development (2004-2010) and completed her elected term on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work (2007-2010).  She also was selected (2009-2010) as a national participant in the Leadership Academy on Aging, sponsored by the Hartford Foundation and the Social Work Leadership Academy of the New York Academy of Medicine.  In 2013, she was recognized by the Division of Social Work as a Significant Mentor for MSW students.

Curriculum Vitae