Dr. Melinda L. Lewis
- Position: Associate Professor
- Department: Social Work
- Office Location: Building 85, Room 139
- mlewis1@uwf.edu
- Campus: 850.474.2614
Biography
Dr. Melinda Lewis, an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work, has both academic and first-hand understanding of social work in various settings.
Lewis earned a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Southern Mississippi and her Ph.D. in Counselor Education at Auburn University, where her concentration was on college student development. Her dissertation explored “Faculty Attitudes toward Persons with Disabilities and Faculty Willingness to Accommodate Persons with Learning Disabilities in the Classroom.”
She possesses direct and administrative experience in a variety of rural and urban settings in Alabama as well as prior academic teaching experience.
Her academic research while at UWF has explored innovations in teaching and professional training, deployment-related stress among National Guard families, as well as challenges and solutions for rural social work. As an Emerge Faculty Fellow in the College of Education and Professional Studies, Lewis has also been instrumental in creating high impact learning opportunities for UWF students on the subject of modern day slavery.
One such collaborative high impact practice activity entitled, “From the Underground Railroad to Modern Day Human Trafficking” took place on a weeklong learning journey in 2014 as students, faculty, and staff traversed rural portions of the historic Underground Railroad across several states.
Her work has been published in Journal of Family Social Work, Social Work with Groups, and Contemporary Rural Social Work, among others.
Her research and scholarly interests include rural health disparities, rural mental health, creative teaching strategies, and human trafficking education and prevention.
Keywords: rural health disparities, rural mental health, creative teaching strategies, and human trafficking education and prevention