Department Members

Carol Brownstein-Evans
Program Director, GRC MSW Program
Associate Professor of Social Work
Phone: 585-395-8459
E-mail: cbrowns3@naz.edu

Carol has been a social work educator since 1977. She received her B.A. from the University of Maryland, M.S.W. from Syracuse University, and Ph.D. in social science from Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Her research is in the intersection of maternal substance abuse and child welfare issues. She has been a full-time faculty member at SUNY Brockport and an adjunct faculty member at Nazareth College. She has taught across the social work curriculum, and to these courses she brings her interests in women's and children's health, substance abuse, and race, class, and gender. During her nine years as a social work supervisor and clinical social worker at Rochester General Hospital, she brought mental health and substance abuse counselors into the Women's Center to provide patients with integrated, interdisciplinary, and interagency care opportunities. Her many publications and presentations reflect her interest and expertise in mothers and addictions, child welfare professionalization, and ethics. She is a coauthor and project director to several collaborative child welfare grants in the Rochester area.

Leanne Charlesworth
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Phone: 585-389-2755
E-mail: lcharle8@naz.edu

Leanne joined the department of social work after working in the Washington, D.C. area for several years. She received her B.A. from Cornell University, M.S.W. from SUNY at Albany, and Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has served in various capacities within, and supporting, child welfare systems and has been an evaluation consultant to diverse public and private human service agencies. She has also directed numerous studies focusing on welfare reform issues. She has taught social work courses for the University of Maryland and Virginia Commonwealth University and brings to her teaching an interest in child and family issues, poverty, and social policy.

Virginia V. David
Professor of Social Work
Chairperson of the Department of Social Work
Director, B.S.W. Program
Phone: 585-389-2751
E-mail: vdavid4@naz.edu

Ginny is the chair of the department of social work at Nazareth College and has been teaching social work for more than 25 years. She received her M.S.W. from Syracuse University and is the co-author of several federal and state grants ranging from child welfare training to gerontology curriculum integration. Her research interests include ethics and child welfare service delivery. She has practiced as a social worker in health care, and most recently led caregivers' groups for the Veterans Administration. Professor David currently serves as the co-chair of National Association of Social Workers, New York State Chapter Ethics Committee, which oversees ethics complaints for social work in New York state.

Estella Norwood Evans
Professor of Social Work
Phone: 585-389-2750
E-mail: eevans3@naz.edu

Estella has been a full-time member of the social work faculty since 1981. She served as department chairperson for 12 years and as past founding director of the Greater Rochester Collaborative MSW program for six years. Estella's research and scholarly background includes expertise in the areas of social policy, political and legislative activism, macro and community practice, administration and higher education, diversity and multicultural practice and education, and religion/ spirituality and social work. Additionally, she serves as a trained Holocaust educator for the Greater Rochester area. She is an appointed member of Mayor Johnson's Commission on Race and Ethnicity for the city of Rochester, an appointed member of the Council on Social Work Education's Commission on Racial, Ethnic and Cultural Diversity, a site visitor for both CSWE and the New York State Education Department, and she serves on several human service boards of directors in our community. Estella teaches in both the BSW and MSW programs.

Annemarie V. House
Clinical Associate Professor of Social Work
Phone: 585-389-2754
E-mail: ahouse7@naz.edu

Annemarie has been a member of the social work faculty since 1987. She is a Nazareth alumna and received her M.S.W. from Catholic University of America's National Catholic School of Social Services. She has taught a number of the foundation BSW courses, including Introduction to Social Work, Social Work Practice II and III, Social Services and Social Policy, Human Behavior and the Social Environment II, and Senior Seminar. Prior to teaching, Annemarie practiced social work for many years. Her practice experience includes areas of gerontology, child welfare, counseling, school social work, supervision, and field instruction. Annemarie is the former director of the Office for Students with Disabilities.

Jed Metzger
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Phone: 585-395-8454
E-mail: jmetzge9@naz.edu

Jed joined the department of social work in 2005, leaving a 23-year full-time career in providing service to children and families involved in the child welfare system, children's mental health system, and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. He received his B.A. in psychology from Emory University, an M.S.W. from New York University, and a Ph.D. in clinical social work from NYU. He has worked as an adjunct professor for the past ten years, first at the University of Buffalo, then at Syracuse University, and finally at the GRC MSW program since it opened. Jed's research relates to kinship care. He is interested in the application of service learning to the development of civically engaged social workers. Jed participated in a cultural exchange to Russia and has ongoing interest in developing learning opportunities between America and Russia for social workers. Jed enjoys cooking, the arts, and music.

Mark Primus
Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work
Phone: 585-389-2752
E-mail: mprimus4@naz.edu

Mark has worked with children and families for the past 20 years. He has provided counseling services for Hillside Family of Agencies, Rochester City School District, Strong Memorial Hospital, Urban League of Rochester, Center for Youth Services, and the Rochester Police Department. He is also a private consultant to the Department of Probation's Juvenile Unit and Kenyon International Emergency Services. His research interests include Caribbean families and fathers, African-American father-child relationships, paternal identity, and childhood development within a cultural context. Mark served as an adjunct instructor since 2004 at Nazareth College, teaching in both the BSW program and the GRC MSW program. He received his B.A. in sociology from Roberts Wesleyan College and an M.S.W. from Syracuse University. Mark is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse University in the Department of Child and Family Studies.

Elizabeth Russell
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Phone: 585-395-8456
E-mail: erusse22@naz.edu

Beth joined the department of social work the summer of 2006 as an adjunct professor in our GRC MSW program, and joined the faculty in spring 2007 as a full-time faculty member. She has worked in a variety of practice settings, including as a case manager for the chronically mentally ill, clinical social worker in a university hospital outpatient setting, child therapist, and research assistant at two other universities. Her main areas of interest are sexual health in practice settings, community advocacy for social justice, women and depression, and mental health. Her current research focuses on community-development projects with older adults and sexual health training of social workers. Beth received her B.S. in human development and family studies from Cornell University, her M.S.W. from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and her Ph.D. in education from the University of Rochester. Her doctoral dissertation assessed mental health practitioners’ knowledge, attitudes, and training in sexual health.

Shirley Sharp
Clinical Associate Professor of Social Work
Phone: 585-389-2758
E-mail: ssharp1@naz.edu

Shirley has been a member of the social work faculty, full-time and part-time, since 1977. She received her M.S.W. from Smith College. Shirley is director of field education in the undergraduate program and assistant director of field education in the graduate program. She teaches foundation BSW and MSW courses. Before teaching at Nazareth, Shirley practiced social work in varied settings, from family service to residential treatment. She consults in the community for the Best Practices Partnership, where she offers training in interactive supervision. Shirley continues to train and facilitate a sexuality education program for parents for the Family Resource Centers of Crestwood Children's Center, and offers supervision for students placed in Child Protective Services in rural counties for SWERCC.

Pamela A. Viggiani

Lecturer in Social Work
Phone: 585-389-2756
E-mail: pviggia6@naz.edu

Pam has a B.A. in English from the University of Rochester and an M.S.W. and Ph.D. in social welfare from SUNY Albany. She has been teaching at Nazareth College in a half-time or part-time capacity since 2001. Before she joined the Nazareth faculty, she taught full-time in Rochester Institute of Technology's social work program (1997-2000). Currently, Pam enjoys teaching Diversity and Social Work Policy courses, although she has had experience teaching across the curriculum. Her research interests include the exploration of effective methods for teaching across the social work curriculum. In particular, she is interested in studying how best to incorporate and convey content related to diversity, child welfare, and advocacy into social work courses. Pam has had the opportunity to publish and present on her research and continues to pursue publishing possibilities as they present themselves. Clinically, Pam has worked with at-risk school children and their families and has assessed preschool children who may be experiencing speech delays. She has also worked at the macro level as the legislative director for the National Association of Social Workers, New York State Chapter.

Marie Watkins
Associate Professor of Social Work
Director of Service Learning
Director of Youth Development Minor
Phone: 585-389-2748
E-mail: mwatkin2@naz.edu

Marie is a 1973 graduate of Nazareth College. She also graduated from Syracuse University with a master's in social work, a master's in marriage and family therapy, and a doctorate in child and family studies. Marie has over two decades of community-based experience as a youth worker, group worker, family therapist, and not-for-profit agency administrator. In addition to these practice experiences, Marie has taught undergraduate and graduate social work courses at Syracuse University and Indiana University as an adjunct faculty member. Marie has published journal articles and book chapters about youth work and the principles of youth development. More recently, she was appointed Nazareth College's director of the Center for Service Learning.