Native Children and Families: Knowledge, Practice and Policy

This event is free and open to the public. One hour of social work continuing education credit is available for social workers attending the presentation. The event is co-sponsored by the School of Social Work and the Native American Studies Program.

Donalee Williams Ünal is a PhD candidate in social work at Widener University. Her academic study focuses on Native social welfare policies, tribal sovereignty and federal Indian policy. Her dissertation examines contributions Natives are making to preserve their tribes and their cultures while reaffirming their sovereignty through conversation with Native knowledge keepers. She has presented lectures to various undergraduate and graduate classes on Native substance use and misuse, Native health disparities, The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, Title IX: Safety for Indian Women and The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. In addition, she had been a teaching assistant and teaching fellow for master’s-level social work classes, including Social Work History and Policy and Methods of Social Work Research. Ünal's paper, "Sovereignty and social justice: How the concepts impact federal American Indian policy and American Indian health," was published in the Social Work in Public Health journal. This work was presented at the Indigenous Tribal Social Work Educators’ Association session of the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education in Orlando, Florida. She holds a Master of Public Health from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Lebanon Valley College.