Dr. Karen Rice obtained her MSW from Temple University in 2000 and her PhD in 2011 from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She serves as the Chair of the School of Social Work at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, where she has been on faculty since 2006. She teaches research, statistics, diversity, and international social work to students across all three levels (BSW, MSW, DSW) of social work education. Utilizing a social justice and human rights framework, her research centers on ways to enhance individuals' (youth, students, adults) levels of compassion, advocacy, and dialogue across and within various social groups. Trained in Intergroup Dialogue, Dr. Rice conducts trainings and co-facilitates dialogues to raise awareness, foster understanding and appreciation, build alliances, and develop individual and collective efforts to promote positive social change. Additionally, her ongoing research and practice centers on the creation of diverse, equitable, and inclusive policies, practices, and programs within institutions and communities, domestically and internationally. Whenever possible, she employs expressive arts to examine and explore these issues as well as to raise awareness, impart knowledge, and promote positive social change. Dr. Rice is the co-founder of Global Champions 4 Humanity, a summer youth program fostering global citizenship. Dr. Heather Girvin earned her MSS from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research in 1995 and returned to earn her PhD in 2002. Dr. Girvin joined the faculty of the Millersville University School of Social Work in Millersville, Pennsylvania in 2007. She teaches social theory, family violence, child welfare, and diversity across all three levels of social work education (BSW, MSW, DSW). In her research, Dr. Girvin implements a human rights-based perspective that centers on social justice, while exploring trauma-related to broadly-defined violence. Dr. Girvin’s current research interests include alternatives to traditional social services and therapies, with particular interest in animal-assisted therapies and the expressive arts. Dr. Girvin is particularly interested in the development of strategies that span the levels of intervention, resist the premature medicalization of problems, and incorporate compassion and solidarity rather than “service implementation.” She is the founder of Lone Oak Animal-Assisted Therapy and Educational Services, an equine-assisted therapeutic services and educational non-profit program.
