Assistant Professor
University at Albany, State University of New York
Caroline N. Sharkey, PhD, LICSW (she/they) is an assistant professor at the University at Albany School of Social Welfare and Project Director for the Juvenile Drug Court Treatment Enhancement program. Caroline is a licensed independent clinical social worker with nearly 30 years of experience as an educator, community mental health clinician and clinical supervisor, and community-engaged researcher. Her research centers on collective efficacy and social cohesion to mitigate community violence and school shootings, the impact of trauma and historical trauma, and to address the needs of young people in city contexts. They examine the role of meso/macro-therapeutic interventions, including socially engaged art, digital storytelling, restorative practices, and youth civic engagement to foster positive youth development, empowerment, and reclamation. They work closely with youthspaces and filmmakers to integrate community-embodied, collective care frameworks to engage social change. Caroline’s research and practice seek to expand the role of social workers in non-clinical/non-traditional settings. Their research includes participatory-action research, intersectional qualitative research, video ethnocinema, and arts-based mixed methods approaches. Caroline has facilitated trauma-informed training nationally to schools, courts, juvenile circuit judge coalitions, libraries, youthspaces, film productions, arts-based organizations, and community organizations. Their work as an educator addresses curriculum violence using culturally sustaining and responsive pedagogies and trauma-sensitive teaching. Caroline’s work has received awards for innovative teaching and, most recently, she was the first-author recipient of the JSWE Best Note of Volume 59 in 2024.
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