Faculty & Staff Directory
Faculty within the Department of Social Work are knowledgeable, respected, passionate and, above all, dedicated to your success. UNI’s smaller class sizes lead to more opportunities to get to know your professors and work closely with them. Whether you need help preparing for your next paper or exam, grad school recommendations or career advice ... your professor will be there to support you.
Adam Butler
Department Head and Professor of Psychology
Interim Department Head of Social Work
Email Adam Butler →
(319) 273-7717
Sarina Carrillo
Secretary III
Email Sarina Carrillo →
319-273-6249
Itunu Ilesanmi, MSW, MPA, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Email Itunu Ilesanmi, MSW, MPA, Ph.D. →
(319) 273-5639
Kim MacLin
Professor of Psychology
Email Kim MacLin →
(319) 273-2302
Jaimie L. O’Gara, Ph.D., LISW, CADC
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Email Jaimie L. O’Gara, Ph.D., LISW, CADC →
319-273-3163
Professors Emerit
Mary Boes
Dr. Boes taught social work at UNI from 1994 until 2016. Her master’s degree in social work is from Tulane University where she also received a master’s in public health. Her doctorate in social work is from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Boes worked extensively in probation services and medical social work, experiences that served her well in teaching social work practice. For seven years, Dr. Boes served the department as the B.A. director of social work. She was also the faculty advisor for the Phi Eta Sigma honor society. As a researcher, Dr. Boes co-authored Social Work with Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals (Allyn & Bacon) and several articles on social work in the emergency room.
Winston Burt
William Downs
Jim Hanson
Dr. Hanson taught in the social work department from 1990 to 2018. He specialized in mental health treatment in both his research and his teaching. In addition, he taught research and human behavior and the social environment.
Cindy Juby
Dr. Juby joined UNI as an assistant professor in 2006. She was promoted to associate professor in 2012 and subsequently took on the role of department head, a position she held from 2012 to 2022.
During her tenure as department head, Dr. Juby guided the department through significant staffing changes and played a major role in two re-accreditation processes. She also initiated and led the development and implementation of the MSW Trauma-Informed Specialization and the establishment of an online MSW program track.
Dr. Juby was initially hired for her expertise in child welfare and, early on, her teaching and research focused on child welfare and policy. As the department faced faculty shortages, she broadened her teaching repertoire to cover a variety of courses across the BSW and MSW programs. Despite these broader responsibilities, her true academic passions and research interests remained centered on child welfare and poverty.
Laura Praglin
Dr. Praglin became an emerita professor in 2021. She offered courses in Social Work Practice, Conflict Resolution, Social Welfare Policy, Practice with Communities and Organizations, Field Instruction, and occasional seminars in Spirituality and Social Work Practice and Women and Social Work.
Dr. Praglin's primary research interests and publications focused on the history of medical social work in the United States and in the interplay of social work with religion/spirituality. Her academic profile may be viewed at researchgate.net/profile/Laura-Praglin.
Contact: laura.praglin@uni.edu
Carole Singleton Henkin
Carole Singleton Henkin joined the UNI faculty in 1989, and retired in 2016. Professor Henkin taught in the undergraduate and graduate programs in the areas of social policy, gerontology, and organizational development, and supervised experiential learning and internships.
Her research has focused on implementation of public programs for the poor, autobiographical writing for older adults, women and aging, and organizational conflict, trust and empowerment. Dr. Henkin served the UNI community on departmental and university-wide committees and was a mentor to many students and junior faculty.
Katherine van Wormer
Katherine Stuart van Wormer grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and received her B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina and a postgraduate degree in English education from Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she taught English for two years; a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Georgia (specializing in corrections and social psychology) and finally, an MSSW from the University of Tennessee-Nashville. Dr. van Wormer practiced social work as an alcoholism counselor in the U.S. and Norway. She taught social work at UNI from 1990 until 2018. She received a total of five research awards from the college of CSBS and from UNI including the Faculty Excellence Award by State Board of Regents in 2007. She has authored and co-authored numerous articles and books, the most significant of which, in her opinion, is the collection of narratives from older African Americans who survived growing up under Jim Crow in Mississippi and later moved to Waterloo, Iowa. This is The Maid Narratives, published by LSU Press. Her most recent books are Addiction Treatment and Women and the Criminal Justice System.
Active in the civil rights and peace movements in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and later, in Northern Ireland, Katherine van Wormer continues to work for peace. She now lives in Madison, WI where she moved to help care for grandchildren. She continues to teach online through Guided Independent Studies.
Contact: katherine.vanwormer@uni.edu
In Memoriam
Ruth B. Anderson, 1921-2013
Founder of the Department of Social Work at UNI
Ruth Anderson inspired generations of social work students through her teaching, personal nurturance, and the example she set of community organizing for human rights. Her story further inspired students through her autobiography, From Mother's Aid Child to University Professor. She was an inspiration to the faculty she worked with and mentored as well.
Ruth Anderson received her master’s degree in social work from Columbia University and the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Simpson College in 1990. She joined UNI in 1969 and taught social work until her retirement in 1990. later was responsible for founding the Department of Social Work as a separate department.
A longtime Cedar Valley community leader and pioneer in the local civil rights movement, Anderson became the first African American elected to the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors. In 1992, at the end of her term on the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors, she was named social worker of the year by the Iowa NASW. In May 2012 she received a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Social Workers.
UNI Department of Social Work History
Thomas Keefe, 1943-2022
Tom Keefe was head of the social work department for over 20 years beginning in 1990. During this time, he oversaw the introduction and development of the MSW program as well as continuing accreditation.
Born in Pennsylvania and lived in many states growing up. Dr. Keefe attended graduate school in Colorado, after which he joined the Air Force Medical Corps, where he worked as a psychiatric social worker providing counseling for men returning from Vietnam. This gave him a deep understanding of the stress that comes with war and returning to peace. He later earned a doctorate in social work from the University of Utah.
As a professor at UNI, Dr. Keefe contributed to several textbooks, including two as the primary author. He also wrote many articles about social work advocating for stress management strategies, particularly exercise and meditation.
James McCullagh, 1936-2022
Dr. McCullagh grew up in New York. His parents had emigrated from county Tyrone in Northern Ireland. He Army for 3 years in several locations including Germany and California. He received a Master of Science in Social Work (MSSW) from University of Missouri-Columbia in 1970 where he met his wife Cheryl Ann Edwards, a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Counseling from Northern Illinois University in 1979, and a JD University of Iowa in 1993. He worked as a professor of social work at the University of Northern Iowa from 1981 until he retired in 2021. Dr. McCullagh was honored with the Randy A. Fisher Lifetime Achievement award and the UNI Regent's Award. With teaching as his primary focus, he was much beloved by students. His research focused on Native American Indians and their contributions to social work for which he was honored by the Oklahoma Cherokee Nation.
Dr. McCullagh was a member of St Stephens Student Center in Cedar Falls where he volunteered as the sacristan for over a decade. Additionally, he was a Benedictine Oblate. Consistent with his strong Irish identity, Jim was buried at St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Greencastle, Northern Ireland with his deceased wife Cheryl McCullagh.
His estate left a legacy gift of $1.1 million to be used for scholarships for his beloved students, which will provide much-needed financial support for students pursuing a social work major at UNI.