Sandra Leotti Honored During Health Sciences Awards Ceremony

Sandra Leotti Honored During Health Sciences Outstanding Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony

During the UW College of Health Sciences Outstanding Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony, held April 14, Dr. Sandra Leotti, an Assistant Professor with the Division of Social Work, was honored with the CHS New Investigator Award. This award recognizes educators whose research digs deep to unearth hidden facts and information not easily visible and produce detailed results and interpretation about a topic that helps students gain a deeper understanding of subjects presented to them. Leotti was nominated by her faculty colleagues in the Division of Social Work. Dr. Diane Kempson, Director of the MSW Program presented Leotti with the award.

Dr. Leotti’s record of excellence as a scholar and researcher were evident early in her career with her dissertation: Interrogating the Construction and Representations of Criminalized Women in the Academic Social Work Literature: A Critical Discourse Analysis (2019). She was a finalist for the 2020 Dissertation of the Year Award by the Society for Social Work and Research in 2020. In 2021, she was the recipient of the Frank R. Bruel Memorial Prize for the best article of 2020 published in the University of Chicago’s Social Science Review. The article was based on her dissertation research. Further evidence of the national reputation she is developing as a researcher was an invited presentation in January 2022 at the prestigious Society for Social Work and Research titled Critical Discourse Analysis as a Tool for Advancing Social Work Research: Special Session on Research Priorities and Capacity Building.

Since joining the faculty at the University of Wyoming, Leotti has published numerous articles in social work, social science, disabilities, and qualitative research journals as well as two book chapters, several book reviews, and numerous technical reports. Her research has been presented at regional, national, and international conferences including the International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry. Leotti has also been active in interdisciplinary research groups working with researchers from disabilities studies and communication disorders. As the Principal Investigator, she received a grant to fund a research project on archiving the experiences of individuals deinstitutionalized in Wyoming through the collection of oral histories. She has also collaborated with UW School of Nursing faculty addressing women’s health issues. It should also be noted that Leotti generously shares her research skills by mentoring students through her role as a thesis chair and thesis committee member. Leotti also involves students in the conduct of her own research.

Sandra Leotti, left, receives the New Investigator Award, presented by College of Health Sciences Faculty Development Committee member, Diane Kempson.