Field Assistant Professor & Director of the Home & School Visitor Program Deborah Robinson has her BFA in Painting and an Art History Minor from Seton Hill College, and her MSW in Community Organizing & Poverty & Associated Problems from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Social Work.
She earned her LSW in 1997 and says “I had the privilege of working in Homewood under the mentorship of Mr. Wilford Payne for 20 years before joining Pitt full time in 2012. I served the community at Alma Illery Medical Center, AIMC, a federally qualified health center promoting wellness through case-management, crisis intervention, information and referral, small groups, outreach, and advocacy in the office as well as home-visits and various neighborhood settings. Since 2005, I have acted as a consultant for UPMC where my role is to facilitate mediation sessions with patients and families where grievances related to care and service are discussed for non-monetary resolutions.”
Robinson teaches Social Work with Individuals and Families in the BASW program, and Human Behavior, Children & Families at Risk, Generalist Social Work Practice, and field seminar in the MSW program. Her Field and Academic Advising is focused on students interested in child welfare.
She shares: “When I teach a course, I am looking for opportunities to share something about a family, a social injustice, a public health event that I experienced while in the field and how to relay it using our textbook. This foundation of working with people experiencing health inequalities with a strength-based lens has prepared me for this position - even before I arrived.”
Fun fact: Robinson worked in a Pittsburgh art gallery for a few years after earning her BFA before volunteering at a local women’s shelter and getting the social work bug. “Social work is the art & science of helping others and in my case, literally” she says.