Social work professor Annelise Mennicke has earned a leadership and service award from a respected national organization in the field. She is the recipient of the 2015 student award for leadership and service from the Group of the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE).
Mennicke, who started at UNC Charlotte this fall, received the award for her work as a graduate student at Florida State University. Her efforts there focused on sexual violence prevention, and she was instrumental in bringing the Green Dot violence prevention program to FSU’s campus. That university is planning a formal launch of the program in 2016.
“I could not be more proud that FSU is moving in such a positive direction and that I had something to do with it,” said Mennicke, who completed a Ph.D. in social work from Florida State.
The GADE leadership award is presented to a doctoral student who has shown significant leadership in service. According to GADE, the award “reflects a commitment to bring visibility to our greatest resource, our students, who provide us with professional purpose and continuously offer us new ways to think and grow.”
Mennicke will be honored formally at a conference in October; a cash prize comes with the award.
According to the incoming social work faculty member, her motivation to advocate for sexual violence prevention arose from her work in the field, interacting with the people affected. Mennicke was volunteer victim’s advocate for a rape crisis center in Florida, where she said she saw people whose lives had been dramatically altered.
“Unfortunately, these experiences happen at alarmingly high rates among the college population, but with the array of programs and services, this seemed like an unnecessary part of the college experience,” she said.
In an area of advocacy that can sometime be emotionally challenging, a faculty advisor helped Mennicke develop a strong personal philosophy on the value of her work.
“A great mentor of mine, Karen Oehme, instilled in me the belief that if the work you do changes just one life, you have made a difference in this world. I started working in sexual violence prevention at FSU knowing that while I would never eliminate sexual assaults among students, I could possibly reduce it, even if just by one,” she said.
Projects Mennicke participated in as a doctoral student laid the foundation for a research trajectory she will pursue at UNC Charlotte. “I am passionate about developing ways to reduce the number of people who are harmed by violence,” she said.
UNC Charlotte stood out as a place for employment, Mennicke stated. “I valued that the university served such a large number of first generation college students who come from diverse backgrounds. This aligns with the values of the social work profession, and our classrooms are enhanced by it. As North Carolina’s urban research university, I also appreciated the balance between teaching and research. I wanted to be somewhere that I would find support for my research agenda but also emphasized quality instruction.”
During her first year at the University, Mennicke plans to focus on developing networks on campus and in the region. She said she hopes a deeper understanding of how domestic violence and sexual assault affects the area will help her work with the community to build innovative prevention approaches.
Founded in the late 1970s, the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work is an organization made up of more than 80 social work doctoral program directors worldwide who represent their member universities. GADE’s primary purpose is to promote excellence in doctoral education in social work, especially through networking, information sharing and advocacy.