from the Circle

STEVEN SOIFER NAMED CHAIR OF SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT

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he University of Mississippi School of Applied Sciences named Steven Soifer as chair of the Department of Social Work.

Steven Soifer

Soifer previously was chair of the Department of Social Work in the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Memphis. He was responsible for overseeing all aspects of curriculum design, delivery and evaluation; faculty and staff hiring, retention, promotion and tenure; research and scholarship activities; development; strategic planning; and student engagement for undergraduate and graduate students for one of the university’s fastest-growing master’s programs. Under Soifer’s leadership, the Master of Social Work program at Memphis improved from being unranked to appearing in the top half of U.S. News and World Report’s annual publication of best M.S.W. programs. “I hope to bring the skills I learned

while being Department of Social Work chair at the University of Memphis to the UM Department of Social Work and take our program to new heights,” Soifer says. “The department’s potential is unlimited.” With 38 years of teaching experience, he held full-time academic appointments at the University of Memphis, University of Maryland at Baltimore, University of Washington, Trinity College and Community College of Vermont. The School of Applied Sciences offers professional preparation programs that integrate academic study, clinical training, creative research, service learning and community outreach, leading to the development of leaders whose professional endeavors will improve health and well-being.

In the Footsteps of Greatness

WINONA NATIVE CHOSEN FOR MOUNT VERNON LEADERSHIP FELLOWS PROGRAM

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University of Mississippi student is heading to Virginia this May to study leadership at the home of the country’s first leader, George Washington. Mitchell Palmertree, a sophomore public policy leadership major from Winona, was selected as a Mount Vernon Leadership Fellow. The program is a highly selective, six-week institute for 16 rising college juniors across the country that offers unparalleled leadership learning and networking opportunities at Mount Vernon, the historic home outside Washington, D.C., of the country’s first president. “This truly is an opportunity to experience something very few people could ever dream of,” Palmertree says. “To call such a historic place my home and experience some of the same experiences as our first president for even a short time will be both awe-inspiring and transformational.”

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ALUMNI REVIEW

Over the course of his May 25-July 5 Boyer, of Houston, was selected last year, stay at the institute, which includes hous- becoming the first Ole Miss student ever admitted to the program, ing, transportation, meals which started in 2015. and a $3,000 stipend, “Mitchell’s passion Palmertree will study a emerges from his conviccharacter-based leadertions and his ability to ship and decision-making align his actions with curriculum modeled after these deep-felt commitWashington’s military and ments,” says Douglass political career. He also Sullivan-González, dean will learn about instituof the Honors College. tion building, identify “R a re a re t h e y o u n g areas for growth and meet people who can follow with national leaders in through on their passions government, military, to implement strategies to industry and nonprofits, mitigate the challenges in learning from their jourMitchell Palmertree neys and counsel. a community. Palmertree, who “ M i t c h e l l ’s t r a c k studies in the Sally McDonnell Barks- record mirrors those convictions and dale Honors College, is the second proves that he has already made a student from the college in as many difference. We are very proud of his years to be selected to the Mount Vernon accomplishments and elated with this Leadership Fellows Program. Elizabeth national recognition.”