Empowering Historically Underserved Communities

University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work alumna Nadine Bridges (MSW’ 2010) serves as executive director of One Colorado, the state’s leading advocacy organization dedicated to advancing equality for LGBTQIA+ Coloradans and their families. Bridges joined the organization in 2021, becoming its first female and Black leader. She discusses One Colorado’s work and the challenges she has faced as a queer Black woman in nonprofit leadership.

University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work alumna Nadine Bridges (MSW’ 2010) serves as executive director of One Colorado, the state’s leading advocacy organization dedicated to advancing equality for LGBTQIA+ Coloradans and their families. Bridges joined the organization in 2021, becoming its first female and Black leader. She discusses One Colorado’s work and the challenges she has faced as a queer Black woman in nonprofit leadership.

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 curriculum. Diane has authored three books and helped to establish the Ray of Hope Colorado Cancer Foundation’s mental health support grant program.

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.

GSSW Associate Professor Anamika Barman Adhikari discusses the use of artificial intelligence in social work research and practice.

Equity Labs Executive Director Chenthu Jayton discusses the organization’s work to advance liberation and justice and steps that individuals can take to center liberation and justice in their own lives and work.