Mission Statement for the University of Southern Maine School of Social Work (SSW) Community Advisory Committee (CAC)
The CAC serves to support the interests and mission of the School of Social Work through on-going collaboration and communication about current professional practice trends, needs and interests in the Maine social service community. Comprised of active community professionals and leaders representing diverse areas of practice, CAC members are ambassadors for SSW programs and informants to the SSW about key issues pertaining to social work education. CAC members benefit from involvement in this collaborative relationship with the SSW by affecting change, learning about changing social work education imperatives, and networking with a range of stakeholders to enhance the future of professional social work in Maine. The CAC activities align with and promote the mission and values of the SSW and the profession, including a commitment to honoring diversity, promoting social justice, and working to advance multi-level social work practice in Maine.
Allegra Hirsh-Wright, MSW, LCSW
Allegra Hirsh-Wright is the Clinical and Training Manager in the Department of Clinical Innovation at Maine Behavioral Healthcare and is a licensed clinical social worker with over fifteen years of experience working in the field of trauma. Ms. Hirsh-Wright is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of trauma-informed care, secondary traumatic stress (STS), and professional resilience and has presented on the topics in both national and local fora. Ms. Hirsh-Wright has expertise in direct clinical practice providing treatment to children and families who have been exposed to trauma and is a nationally certified clinician, supervisor, and consultant in multiple child trauma treatment models. Ms. Hirsh-Wright has extensive experience facilitating organizational, community, and state-wide change efforts related to evidence-based practices and trauma-informed care. Ms. Hirsh-Wright sits on multiple state and national committees and Boards that focus on childhood exposure to trauma, trauma-informed care, and resilience, and she has authored multiple resources on the topics of STS and resilience. Ms. Hirsh-Wright is an adjunct professor in the University of Southern Maine’s School of Social Work and is a lover of all things orange.
Jonathan Hopps, LCSW, M.Ed.
Jonathan has been in private practice for 10 years. Previously he had careers in nonprofit management and television production.
He is a graduate of University of Vermont, B.A in mass communications and has a masters degree in education from Cambridge College and a masters in social work from University of Southern Maine. He has two grown children Sawyer and Carly and has been married to Tory for 35 years.
Mary Anne Peabody EdD, LCSW, RPT-S
Mary Anne Peabody, EdD, LCSW, RPT-S is a licensed clinical social worker and a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor. She holds a doctorate degree in Executive Leadership, a certificate of advanced graduate study in School Counseling, a master’s degree in Social Work, and bachelor’s degrees in both Psychology and Recreational therapy.
She has served as President of the National Association for Play Therapy, was the co-founder of the play therapy certificate program at New Hampshire’s Plymouth State University and a founding member of the Maine Association for Play therapy. She has co-published chapters in play therapy texts and is the creator of several published therapeutic board games for children. She is the co-author of the Same Sky Sharing curriculum, a small group intervention to help children with a parent in the military cope with deployment. She has provided training for a variety of broader social and emotional training efforts throughout the United States and Canada.
Prior to coming to USM LAC she served as the Deputy Director of National Services with Children’s Institute; a non-profit agency affiliated with the University of Rochester in New York where she directed Primary Project, an evidenced based school adjustment program implemented across the country. Prior to her work at Children’s Institute, she worked in public elementary schools as a school counselor/social worker, in private practice, in residential treatment and in children’s hospitals as a Child Life Specialist.
She is a wife and mom of two adult children and loves to mix playfulness and teaching.
Caroline Raymond, LCSW, LADC, CCS
Caroline Raymond is an alumni of USM, graduating in 1992 with her MSW. She is the Senior Director of Community Services at Maine Behavioral Healthcare / MaineHealth. She is passionate about improving systems care. She led systems improvement in Residential and Corrections services for over 20 years. She then recognized that a better way to address the distilled population entering corrections was to get in front of it through Community Services. She believes in the power of a diverse team. She is strength based focused in both her leadership and direct service delivery. She has a long history of Project Management including the implementation of evidenced based services and the opening of four residential programs. She is committed to fidelity and compliance measures and values program assessments and audits as tools for change. In her off time she loves to travel with her family and friends, she is trying to learn to speak Italian so she can spend time in Italy when she retires, loves to read and has two adorable dogs.
Elizabeth Szatkowski, MSW, LCSW, Denominational Endorsement Society of Friends
Ms. Szatkowski is a highly experienced social worker who is widely recognized in Maine for her keen leadership and clinical skills. She provides psychosocial care for individuals and their families in hospice using an integrated health model, and she supervises Chaplains and social workers in this most challenging field, incorporating spiritual health into her practice and supervision. Since receiving her BA in Psychology, English and Women’s Studies in 1986 at Williams College and her MSW in 1992 at University of Pennsylvania, she has been actively engaged in the non-profit social service community in Maine. She is well-known in the community for her compassion and deep knowledge of the economic, mental and physical health, substance, and trauma challenges faced by Mainers and of the best practices for meeting those needs. Ms. Szatkowski has successfully built and managed multiple effective programs in Portland, balancing the needs of clients, staff, organizations, and funding sources. Ms. Szatkowski is a generous collaborator, who has worked with organizations and community groups to address systemic problems, for instance her foundational involvement with Portland’s Housing First efforts. Ms. Szatkowski is also a skilled teacher and dedicated mentor and supervisor, who has guided scores of social work students over the years both in the classroom and as interns in programs she has managed. She has been a part time faculty member in the School of Social Work and a long-standing member of the School’s Community Advisory Committee.