Social Work

Joshua believes that students learn when they are engaged and active in the classroom. His teaching philosophy is one where he is facilitating a group discussion more than lecturing to a class. 

His area of academic focus and expertise includes forensic social work, social work practice with individuals and groups, and gerontology.

At Lesley, he teaches these courses:

• Introduction to Social Work
• Social Work Policy
• Social Work Practice with Groups
• Research Methods
• Program Evaluation
• Social Work Practice with Individuals and Families
• Community Mental Health
• Contemporary Families
• Human Behavior and the Social Environment.  J

Joshua launched Lesley's Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree in Fall 2019. Joshua holds a Master of Social Work and PhD in Social Work from the University of Alabama. 

Flavia Stanley joins Lesley from the University of Massachusetts/Boston, where she recently completed a post-doctoral fellowship on a study investigating the effects of financial debt on the health and wellbeing of individuals. She has worked extensively in educational and community settings, from teaching at the elementary through the college level, to coordinating community service and service learning programs. Her research interests include community engaged and public interest research, social and economic disparities, and the cultural politics of race, ethnicity and whiteness. She will be teaching courses in anthropology, human services and social work and aims to bring the holistic perspective offered by anthropology to give context to understanding and resolving contemporary human problems.

Dr. Stanley received her BA in Anthropology from Barnard College, MSW in Community Organizing and Advocacy from the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor, and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst.

Dr. Jean Clarke-Mitchell is focused on having students become aware of the use of themselves in authentic ways to be most effective with clients’ needs. Her teaching philosophy is that each student is as unique as each client, and she strives to prepare students to honor that knowledge in their work.

Her academic focus has been in both undergraduate and graduate courses that included social work practice with groups, families, and individuals including adults, youth, and children, courses in diversity and social justice, theories of personality, and a BSW licensing course. Jean holds expert status in the areas of intimate partner violence trauma and its effect on the family.

She holds a Master of Social Work and PhD in Social Work from Smith College School of Social Work.

Dr. April Berry Fletcher is an Associate Professor in social work.  April completed her undergraduate studies in social work at the University of Maine, graduate studies in education at Regis College and in social work at the University of Chicago.  Her research foci include prevention of school violence, violence on college campuses, interpersonal violence, and most recently, the development and evaluation of experiential and neurobiologically informed workplace violence prevention curricula.  In the classroom, she actively engages students through experiential strategies to challenge beliefs, values and assumptions as a means to promote personal and professional growth.  

April has served on the faculty of Boston College, Boston University and Regis College where she has developed and taught courses across the graduate and undergraduate social work curricula.  She is committed to bridging the gap between research and practice developments in neuroscience, holistic health and social work.  To this end, she provides consultation and training for dozens of local and national social service agencies where she translates research and practice theory to enable providers to respond to somatic, neurobiological and social factors as elements of holistic assessment and intervention. 

Elaine Gatewood believes that all students have the capability to learn when they are engaged and active in the classroom. Her teaching philosophy is about promoting learning by engaging students in their learning environment, encouraging higher-order thinking skills, and respecting students' opinions and backgrounds to create an inclusive environment.

She is a collaborative, strengths-focused, licensed clinician with clinical, teaching. and management experience serving individuals with complex needs in a variety of settings. These settings include higher education, youth development, community mental health centers, and residential facilities. She seeks to further student-centered focus and practice in higher education that values person-centered care, clinical/social work excellence, and professional development. Elaine has demonstrated success-guiding organizations, teams, and individuals in developing strengths and achieving meaningful goals.

Elaine has served in program development, community organization, and clinical capacities for youth and young adults across an array of diverse organizations including Brockton Juvenile Court and Randolph Public Schools.

Elaine holds a Master of Social Work from Fordham University.

Megan is the BSW field director and teaches social work courses in the Social Sciences Department of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  Megan is passionate about social work, especially because of the profession’s breadth and social justice core.  She loves to work with students to build practical skills and theoretical frameworks as well as deepen self-knowledge.  In the classroom, Megan encourages students to bridge the divides of self and other, professional and personal, political and individual.

Megan worked as a social worker for over a decade in criminal defense and civil legal advocacy in New York City.  At the Bronx Defenders and Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project, Megan supervised social work interns focusing on the intersections of mental health, incarceration, homelessness, adolescence and trauma. Megan taught social work advocacy and advised second year MSW students at the Columbia School of Social Work. She also worked in Monterrey, Mexico with the Open Society Justice Initiative.

Megan finds tremendous hope and community in policy and organizing efforts to shift the criminal justice system.  For many years prior to moving to the Boston area, she was a core member of the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement and served on the New York State Prisoner Justice Network steering committee.

Megan holds a BA in cultural anthropology from Wesleyan University and an MSW from the Columbia School of Social Work.

Dr. Jina Chang seeks equity in the student learning experience and student success in her teaching. She values a student-centered orientation, strength-based perspectives for individual students, and respectful interactions with students, all of which she sees as essential to creating a culture of positive learning. She constantly strives to make classes inclusive, effective, and enjoyable, where all students have equal opportunities to participate and lead.

Her research examines inequity and inequality embedded in the US healthcare system, access to healthcare, and health among vulnerable and marginalized children and families and their associations with family poverty. She examines a wide range of health outcomes among marginalized children, including ADHD. She enjoys working with Master of Social Work students on her research projects and supports their career development.

Jina holds a PhD in Social Work from Boston University with a specialization in Child and Family Health, Master of Social Work (MSW) from Columbia University with a concentration in Policy, and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Biology from George Washington University.