Upcoming Alumni Events
View AllSupervision Through the Lens of Trauma-Informed Care (3 CEs)
CarmenZoomCost: $35 (No discount code needed. Discounted from $50 original rate.)
It’s Just a Test: Prevention Credentialing (1.5 CEs)
CarmenZoomCost: $35 (No discount code needed. Discounted from $50 original rate.)
Farm Stress Certified Program Foundation Module 1: Farming 101 (2.5 CEs)
CarmenZoomCost: $35 (Series valued at $750)
Farm Stress Certified Program Foundation Module 2: Managing the Farm (2.5 CEs)
CarmenZoomCost: $35 (Series valued at $750)
Farm Stress Certified Program Foundation Module 3: Farming – The Real World (2.5 CEs)
CarmenZoomCost: $35 (Series valued at $750)
2023 Hall of Fame Recipients
DISTINGUISHED CAREER AWARD
Awarded to College of Social Work alumni for exceptional professional achievements, initiatives, or leadership in one or more of the following areas: practice/clinical excellence, community development, advocacy, education, or administration.
Brandy Jemczura, MSW ’11
Brandy Jemczura is the Founder and Executive Director of Seeds of Caring, a leading youth service organization based in Columbus, Ohio. Brandy spent her early career teaching elementary education in Virginia, Poland, and Ghana. After obtaining dual master degrees in Social Work and Public Policy at The Ohio State University, she went on to champion community engagement efforts in schools and lead teams of social workers at senior services organizations.
Once she became a parent, Brandy Jemczura sought opportunities to teach her kids about the needs in their community and build empathy, kindness, and confidence in their ability to make a difference. With few options for young kids to volunteer, she got her big idea: an organization created specifically to engage and empower children as a catalyst for change in their community. And that’s when Seeds of Caring was born. As Executive Director of Seeds of Caring, Brandy has led the organization’s growth, engaging 285 child participants in year one to over 26,000 in year seven – empowering young people to meet critical community needs of more than 50 nonprofit organizations. Under Brandy‘s leadership, the organization recently launched programming in Indianapolis and developed a national expansion plan in response to demand for services beyond Central Ohio.
Brandy is determined to inspire as many kids as possible to know their power to make a positive difference and to create a kinder, more connected world, led by our youngest generation.
Dr. Jamie Mitchell, PhD ’10
Dr. Jamie Mitchell is an associate professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Her research focuses on older Black men’s engagement in health decision-making, improving patient-provider communication, and maximizing opportunities for diverse research representation in scientific discoveries. She serves as a co-investigator on a large multi-university research collaboration between the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and Michigan State University titled, the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR), that is funded by the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health. As a co-director of MCUAAAR’s Community Liaison and Recruitment Core since 2018, Jamie works alongside community stakeholders to provide free public health education and programming to older adults in Detroit and Flint, Michigan and recruits older adults to two community-led research registries that provide participants to local well-vetted research studies on aging. Jamie has published over 40 peer-reviewed research articles, shared her work on NPR and other news outlets, and she develops courses for and teaches in the online MSW program at U-M. Jamie is principal investigator of her own NIH-funded research grant in aging since 2020, and is the proud mom to Hunter and Jett.
Dr. Nasser Aloud, PhD ’04
Dr. Aloud is an Associate Professor in Clinical Social Work and is a faculty member at the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Al-Imam University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In 2011, Dr. Aloud moved to work as an advisor to His Excellency the Saudi Minister of Justice (2011-2018) to enhance social work in the judicial system, where he achieved a number of successes, the most prominent of which was the establishment of the social work profession in the courts. The first Social Work Department at the Ministry of Justice with total of 350 Social workers were employed in 2018.
Dr. Aloud’s efforts also contributed to opening the door for Saudi females, for the first time in history, to work in the Ministry of Justice after issuing the first Women’s Department in the Ministry in 2014. In addition, Dr. Aloud contributed to creating an alimony fund to serve divorced women and children, as well as a program to serve divorced women and children in custody, and a program to serve the disabled and the elderly in the Ministry of Justice.
In 2019, Dr. Aloud moved to work at the Attorney General office (Public Prosecution) until the end 2021, where he introduced several programs, the most important of which is the establishment of a family and juvenile department in the Public Prosecution and Centers for criminal reconciliation services. About 210 social workers were employed to run these programs.
Rachel Ramirez, MSW ’07
Rachel Ramirez is the Director of Health and Disability Programs and the Founder of The Center on Partner-Inflicted Brain Injury at The Ohio Domestic Violence Network (ODVN). She provides extensive national and international training, consultation, and program support to people who work with survivors of domestic violence. She focuses on equipping them to better understand traumatic stress and the significant impact of brain injury from violence, which translates into more accessible and effective services.. Rachel has co-authored several peer reviewed journal articles and her work has been featured on National Public Radio as well as in The New York Times Magazine and The Washington Post. Rachel is a licensed independent social worker and a registered advocate with senior standing in the state of Ohio and has been with ODVN for 16 years.
RECENT CAREER AWARD
Madison Eagle, MSW ’18
Madison Eagle (pronouns: she, her, hers; Tribal Affiliation: Tsalagi (Cherokee) and Shawnee) is a two-time graduate of The Ohio State University. She received her Bachelor’s in Anthropology with Minors in American Indian Studies and History in 2014 and her Master’s in Social Work in 2018. She currently serves as Coordinator for Belonging and Student Support in the Student Life Center for Belonging and Social Change (CBSC) and as a practicing Clinical Social Worker with Wild Hope Therapy.
After graduating from Ohio State in 2014, Madison became the Program Coordinator for Leadership and Social Justice at YWCA Columbus. She spent two years working with young women to provide professional development and mentorship programming. During her time in the College of Social Work Master’s program, she worked as a Youth Services Coordinator for Kids Club and Senior Service Case Manager at the Clintonville-Beechwold Community Resources Center.
Madison has worked in the Center for Belonging and Social Change since 2018 as a full-time professional. Her current focus with the CBSC is to create intentional spaces of belonging and student support for all while centering the needs of Native American and Indigenous students. In her work as a therapist, she utilizes an Indigenous Feminist approach to support clients in their mental health journeys. Madison strives to advocate for social change through an Indigenous approach to Social Work.
Past Recipients
(coming soon)