Introducing new faculty

The following are among the new faculty members at the University. Others will be introduced periodically in this space.

Peter S. Hovmand, Ph.D., joins the George Warren Brown School of Social Work as assistant professor. He earned a master’s degree in social work and an interdisciplinary doctorate in social science with concentrations in social work, psychology and cognate in feminist philosophy/women’s studies from Michigan State University. Before coming to Washington University, Hovmand was an instructor at Michigan State University and a male outreach coordinator for Michigan State University’s Safe Place. His teaching interests include system dynamics, research methods, human behavior in social environments and social work and oppression. Hovmand’s research focuses on domestic violence, system dynamics and “flight simulators” for social work.

Deborah M. Megivern, Ph.D., joins the George Warren Brown School of Social Work as assistant professor. She earned master’s degrees in social work and in personality psychology from the University of Michigan. Megivern earned her doctorate in social work and psychology from the University of Michigan in 2001. Prior to joining GWB, Megivern was a postdoctoral research fellow with the Center for Mental Health Services Research at GWB and a program evaluator for the Great Lakes Area Supported Education Replication. She was also a mental health policy instructor at GWB. Her research interests include economic and social disadvantage as factors for development of mental illness, access to social/economic capital for people with mental illness and early intervention and recovery from mental illness. Megivern’s teaching focuses on mental health; diversity, social justice and multiculturalism; social policy, research and evaluation methods; and poverty and economic justice.

Carolyn Kornfeld Lesorogol, Ph.D., joins the George Warren Brown School of Social Work as an assistant professor. She earned a master’s degree in African studies from the University of California, Los Angeles and a master’s degree in anthropology from Washington University. In 2002, Lesorogol earned a doctorate in anthropology from the University. Before joining the GWB faculty, Lesorogol was an instructor in the Washington University Department of Anthropology. Her research interests focus on the political and economic dynamics of social and cultural change. She has conducted fieldwork among semi-nomadic pastoralists in Kenya, where she has lived and worked for more than ten years. Seven of those years were spent doing applied work in the fields of community development, rural development and participatory development.