Social Worker Leaders Celebrating Excellence - October 2024

The AASW PhD Webinar Series Social Work Leaders: Celebrating Excellence Webinar Series

This exciting and dynamic webinar will take place on Tuesday the 8th of October from 6:30pm to 8:00 pm AEDT

Free for members, join us to celebrate three outstanding AASW Members who have elevated the social work profession through their research. Presenters will commence the session with an introduction to their work and findings and discuss how their research intersects with real world practice, as well as exploring their own career journeys and experiences from their PhDs and beyond.

This webinar will be chaired by Dr Louise Whitaker and audience members will hear her discussion with panellists Dr Bindi Bennett, Dr Josie McSkimming and Dr Xulong Zhi.

Register now!

Read more about your October PhD speakers below!

Chairperson:

Dr Louise Whitaker

Dr Louise Whitaker, Senior Lecturer, Social Work and Community Welfare, Southern Cross University teacher is a member of the AASW National Research Committee. Her research examines mental health social work practice and pedagogy. Before joining academia in 2010, she practiced in mental health, women's health, Legal Aid and cancer workforce development. Dr Whitaker is particularly interested in acknowledging and capturing practice wisdom through practice based social work research.

Panellists

Dr Bindi Bennett

Dr Bindi Bennett (she/her) is a K/Gamilaroi woman, mother, and social worker and is a Professorial Research Fellow at Federation University living, playing and working on Jinibara lands. She is a social justice scholar, a compassionate radical and activist requesting transformational change who is committed to improving and growing cultural responsiveness; re-Indigenising Western spaces; understanding and exploring Indigenous Knowledge Systems in research; and exploring the human-animal bond.

Dr Josie McSkimming

Dr Josie McSkimming is an accredited mental health social worker with more than 35 years experience. She has practised in a wide range of settings, including hospital social work, inter-country adoption, post-adoption services, drug and alcohol treatment, individual and couples therapy and adult mental health.

She is an adjunct lecturer at the University of NSW and the author of two books, ‘Leaving Christian Fundamentalism and the Reconstruction of Identity’ and ‘Gutsy Girls’, a memoir to be released early 2025.

She is now in full time private practice as a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor.

Dr Xulong Zhi

Dr Xulong Zhi completed his doctoral thesis in 2020, focusing on how Chinese students develop their social work identity through undergraduate education in both China and Australia. Currently, Dr. Zhi works as a private social worker, providing therapeutic support to NDIS participants, and as a lecturer in Community Services and Social Work at Acknowledge Education.

Dr. Zhi’s research and practice interests primarily center around providing therapeutic support, functional assessments, and counseling for clients from immigrant backgrounds. He is particularly dedicated to addressing the challenges these individuals face in accessing social welfare services in Australia, which are often complicated by cultural and language barriers.

In addition to his primary focus, Dr. Zhi has experience in various other areas, including youth work, disability support, aged care, and working with LGBTIQ groups.