Megan Westmore
Megan Westmore, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Work at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Topic: Social Work
Abbie Kell
Abbie Kell, MSW, is the associate director of Basic Needs and Housing Support at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Dawn Matera Bassett
JaLisa Williams
JaLisa Williams is an affiliate professor in the Department of Social Work at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Randyl (Randi) Smith
Randyl (Randi) Smith, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her areas of expertise include professional ethics, service-learning, and human sexuality.
Smith is a licensed psychologist and a licensed clinical social worker. She has been working in the mental health field since 1987, providing services in a variety of settings ranging from inpatient psychiatric hospitalization to school-based counseling to home-based family therapy. Smith has her own private practice where she focuses on adult and adolescent treatment, and on marital/couples therapy. She is the chair of the Psychologist Examiner Board for the State of Colorado. Smith has worked with various community partners since she started teaching, including Colorado High School Charter, New Foundations Nonviolence Center, the Denver Rescue Mission, Urban Peak Denver, the Karis Community and CHARG.
Smith received her doctoral in counseling psychology from the University of Denver in 1999 after completing her doctoral internship at Denver General Hospital (now Denver Health Medical Center). She also received a master’s in social work from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s in human ecology from Cornell University.
Susie Ryder
Susie Ryder, M.S.W., is the director of undergraduate and graduate field education in the Department of Social Work at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Ryder started her career in social work at Cleo Wallace Centers where she worked for 7 years in various positions including inpatient social worker, residential clinician, inpatient manager and clinical director. She then continued her work with children, adolescents and families at Mental Health Partners for 16 years. At Mental Health Partners, Ryder was the solution focused therapy trainer for the center for several years and most recently senior program manager for the Prevention/Intervention and School Based programs in the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain School Districts with oversight of 35 therapists.
She has been a faculty field advisor, admissions reader, integrative seminar co-leader and lecturer in the continuing education for advanced clinician program at Smith College School for Social Work. In addition, Ryder has a private practice in Boulder working with individuals, couples and families. She currently serves on the board of a suicide prevention program for adolescents and offers presentations in Boulder county on this topic.
Ryder received her Master of Social Work from Smith College School for Social Work and a bachelor’s from Oberlin College. She is a licensed social worker and a licensed addiction counselor.
Jessica Ritter
Jessica Ritter, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Social Work at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Her career as a social worker and academic has been dedicated to child welfare and children’s rights as well as political advocacy related to issues of social and economic justice. Ritter has been teaching social work at the college level for 13 years.
She is a Fulbright scholar and is the author of two books—101 Careers in Social Work, 2nd ed. (2015) and Social Work Policy Practice: Changing our Community, Nation, and the World (2nd edition is In Press).
Ritter received her doctorate, master of social work and bachelor of social work from University of Texas, Austin.
Jessica Retrum
Jessica Retrum, Ph.D., is interim dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Marina Pereira
Professor Emerita Marina Pereira has taught graduate courses in the Graduate Social Work program as MSU Denver. She has taught at Metropolitan State University of Denver since 1999.
Professor Pereira is well versed in topics of mental health and families. She has special interest in issues of acculturation, diversity and first-generation Latino students. She was an advisor for the Student Association of Social Workers (SASW), a student organization that helps students develop and increase their sense of civic responsibility and community engagement by service learning activities.
Before teaching at MSU Denver, Pereira worked in the areas of medical social work and mental health, where she specialized in treating and advocating for children and families with a history of domestic violence, sexual and physical abuse.
Ann Obermann
Ann Obermann, Ph.D., is interim chair and professor of Social Work at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Since 2016 she has taught courses in direct family practice, family therapy, trauma, mental health assessment, trauma interventions and child maltreatment. In addition, she enjoys training child welfare and mental health professionals on topics such as trauma, adolescent development, leadership and supervision as well as family engagement.
Obermann is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Colorado and has extensive social work practice experience working in human service management, community mental health and with at risk families and adolescents in both child welfare and mental health environments. She also managed an intensive evidence based program where she created and facilitated different trainings for online social work instructors to prepare them for socially just educational experiences. Obermann is also the coauthor of the book, “101 Careers in Social Work”.
Obermann received her Ph.D. in social work from the University of Denver in 2017, her master’s in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002 and her bachelor’s in social work from St. Olaf College in 1997.