Championing the Black Perspective: Howard University SSWR 2025 Presenters
Championing the Black Perspective: Howard University SSWR 2025 Presenters
The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Annual Conference convenes leading scholars, practitioners, and emerging researchers to advance knowledge that shapes the future of the profession. With more than 500 symposia, workshops, roundtables, flash talks, posters, and paper presentations, the conference offers an expansive scientific program spanning cutting-edge quantitative and qualitative methodologies and critical topics such as child welfare, aging, mental health, substance use, HIV/AIDS, and welfare reform. Howard University School of Social Work is proud to stand among the nation’s foremost research institutions represented at SSWR 2025, that advances the Black Perspective, interrogates structural inequities, amplifies underrepresented communities, and drives innovative policy and practice solutions. This year, our distinguished faculty and doctoral students will present across premiere sessions—including special interest groups, policy forums, oral and poster presentations.
Keynote Speaker:
Saturday, January 17, 2026 | 11:30am- 12:30pm (EST)
Annual Social Policy Forum
Sandra Edmonds Crewe, MSW, PhD, ACSW
Dean Emerita and Professor, Howard University School of Social Work
The conference will prominently feature Dean Emerita and Professor Sandra Edmonds Crewe, MSW, PhD, ACSW, who will deliver the Keynote Address for the Annual Social Policy Forum on Saturday, January 17, 2026. Her selection as keynote speaker reflects her decades-long leadership in enhancing the well-being of African Americans through research, scholarship, and public advocacy.
A respected national figure, Dr. Crewe currently serves as the Sojourner Truth Social and Racial Justice Visiting Professor at Rutgers School of Social Work (2024–2026) and Professor of Social Work at Howard University. She is also recognized as a NASW Pioneer for her contributions to affordable housing and has received several prestigious honors, including the Next Avenue Influencer in Aging Award (2022) and the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Trust Award (2020). Her public service includes five gubernatorial appointments as a Maryland Affordable Housing Trustee.
Dr. Crewe’s scholarship spans social welfare history, ethnogerontology, persistent poverty, mental health, caregiving, and lived-experience leadership. In 2015, she established the Dean Sandra Edmonds Crewe Endowed Social Work Scholarship at Howard University, further cementing her legacy of expanding educational opportunity for master's and doctoral students.
HUSSW Faculty and Student Research Highlights:
Friday, January 16, 2026: 7:00 AM-8:00 AM
Social Work and Research with Muslims SIG (special interest group)
HUSSW contributor: Altaf Husain, PhD
Friday, January 16, 2026: 12:45 PM-1:45 PM
Eradicating Social Isolation (Grand Challenge for Social Work) (special interest groups)
HUSSW contributor: Robert Cosby, PhD.
Saturday, January 17, 2026: 7:00 AM-8:00 AM
HBCU Social Work Collective (Special Interest Group)
HUSSW contributors: Latoya Hogg, Ph.D., MSW; Cudore Snell, DSW; and Janice Davis, PhD
Sunday, January 18, 2026: 8:00 AM-9:30 AM
Investigating How Parental Education Moderates the Effects of Depression on Male College Students' Beliefs Toward Degree Completion (poster)
HUSSW contributor: Bryan Haggard, MSW, LCSW
Sunday, January 18, 2026: 9:45 AM-11:15 AM
Beyond Single Narratives: Addressing Intersecting Oppressions Faced By Diverse Muslim Populations in Social Work (Roundtable)
HUSSW contributor: Hannan Hijazi, MSW
Sunday, January 18, 2026: 11:30 AM-1:00 PM
Evaluating a Group-Based Intervention to Enhance Test-Taking Confidence and Reduce Licensure Exam Anxiety Among Black MSW Students (oral presentation)
HUSSW contributors: Sandra Jeter, PhD; Gloria Cain, PhD; Kyaus Washington, MSW; and Jessica Armstead, MSW