PhD Students

Dissertation title: Digital storytelling and fostering collective efficacy: Arts-based youth participatory action research and constructing community.

Committee Chair: Jennifer Elkins

Caroline N. Sharkey (she/they) is a licensed clinical social worker whose research centers the impact of trauma and historical trauma on city communities with a focus on collective efficacy and social cohesion as ways to mitigate community violence and address the needs of at-promise youth paradigms. She examines the role of macro/mso therapeutic interventions, including socially engaged art, digital storytelling, restorative practices, and youth civic engagement to foster positive youth development and empowerment. Caroline’s research includes participatory-action research, intersectional qualitative research, ethnocinema, and mixed methods approaches. Caroline is excited to expand the role of social work in non-traditional/non-clinical settings. Additionally, her work as an educator addresses curriculum violence using culturally sustaining pedagogies, trauma-informed teaching and multi-modal/experiential learning.

Caroline was a long-time teacher and director at the Albany Free School and co-founder of a community center, Grand Street Community Arts in Albany, NY’s South End. She was the Director of Youth Services for Advantage Behavioral Health Systems and $1.6 million in annual state and federally funded programs for youth mental health, school-based services, early psychosis, suicide prevention, and emerging adult services. Caroline was a part-time instructor in the School of Social Work at UGA and the project coordinator for the Trauma Informed Library Transformation (TILT) program embedding trauma-informed services in public libraries.

Caroline is also psychotherapist and clinical supervisor at Project Family and Board President for the Georgia Conflict Center. Caroline has a number of publications and has been a presenter at more than 200 professional community presentations, trainings, workshops, and juried conference presentations. She was named a “Brief & Brilliant scholar” at the 2022 Society for Social Work Research conference.

Website: www.carolinesharkeylcsw.com/

CV available on request; email sswphd@uga.edu