Jana Woodiwiss
PhD Student
Candidate
Jana Woodiwiss, LMSW, obtained her Associate of Science degree from Georgia Perimeter College in 2013. She went on to obtain her bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University, where she began research internships with both the social work and economics departments at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. She obtained her MSW degree at the University of Georgia, where she served as a research assistant, and also took part in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funded Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program. The program’s training was specifically geared towards working with children and adolescents at risk for developing behavioral health disorders, and their families.
Ms. Woodiwiss has used solution-focused brief therapy and strengths-based case management approaches in her time working with clients in medical settings. In foster care and adoption settings she also assisted children in telling their stories through digital media and photovoice projects as a treatment modality.
In addition to medical social work, international and domestic adoption, and foster care, Ms. Woodiwiss has worked in hospice, child sex- trafficking intervention services, as well as supervised operations at a logistics center.
In her role as a program manager at Positive Impact Health Centers, Ms. Woodiwiss presented her research, “Program rollout and challenges: Integrating community health work into an ASO service delivery model,” at the 2018 Ryan White National Conference on HIV and AIDS.
Ms. Woodiwiss’s career aspirations include teaching, research, and grant-writing at a university and research institution, in addition to providing mental health services for children being raised by their non-biological parents, and to families growing through adoption.
Ms. Woodiwiss’s research interests include parent-child separation as a result of immigration, trauma and trauma interventions, Latinx community, case management, program management, theory development, and policy analysis.
