Field Assistant Professor Alicia Melnick, MSW works and interacts with students across the programs and levels in various school roles. For the students, she places and advises primarily students in the MSW program. She has taught three courses across the school’s curriculum: Generalist Social Work Practice, Social Policy and Gerontology, and Social Work with Substance Use and Other Addictive Disorders. She places students in both DP and COSA field placements, and also works withs several fellowships in the School, such as the Library Social Work Fellowship, the Community Engagement Fellowship, and the Behavioral Health Scholars Program (BHSP). Additionally, she is super user of the field department’s EXXAT platform.
Alicia’s undergraduate degrees are from Mount Union College in Ohio. She has a BA in Psychology with minors in sociology and theater. She received her MSW from Pitt with a Concentration in DP – Gerontology, where she was in the 2nd cohort of the Hartford Fellowship. She is currently in school for her DSW at Walden University with a concentration in social work education.
Before her MSW, Alicia worked in youth mental health at the Bradley Center. After receiving her MSW, she worked at Western Psych in the Geriatric Psych unit for 5 years, and then moved on to UPMC Passavant as the Social Work Manager. She worked clinically in the ICU and on medical-surgical units, covering the ER and providing supervision to the social work staff.
She considers her work experience as vitally important to her work as a faculty member. She shares: “I have worked in many different settings and can explain to students what this work looks like. My work experience also allows me to be creative in my problem-solving. I find that I use my clinical social work skills frequently in my role as an advisor and field liaison. I enjoy being able to share my work experience with students and often use examples from my experiences.”
Outside of work and school, she is a dance mom and soccer mom. She loves to garden and has a greenhouse in her backyard. “Each year my garden grows bigger,” she says. “I start my plants from seeds and save seeds each year to restart my plants the next spring. My favorite treats to grow are bell peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I also can my own tomato sauce and pickles!”