Every other week during the semester we will showcase one staff member. This week we get to know Everett Smith, a Clinical Field Instructor in SWCOS
How would you describe yourself?
Existentialist, aspiring Freirean liberationist, impatient optimist, beard and glasses, needing a new tattoo, husband, father, fan of counter-culture.
When did you join the SSW and what is your day-to-day role?
I joined the SSW in August 2014. I provide field instruction for 8-12 foundation students placed in community schools or interprofessional education projects. I work with colleagues to improve field instruction and field education with an emphasis on incorporating social justice themes encountered in field sites. I support multiple interprofessional education projects: President's Clinic, IPE Day, Mt. Clare Senior Housing Aging in Place, and a dental school/social work collaboration, in addition to serving on interprofessional panels and guest lecturing for interprofessional courses. Additionally, I provide de-escalation training for various organizations including the Positive Schools Center, Enoch Pratt Library System, and Baltimore Police Department Explorers program.
What skills are needed for your role? Interpersonal skills for developing strong, collaborative relationships with field students, time management to meet student's learning needs while working on multiple projects for SWCOS, the ability to disseminate social work best practices and research observations to social work students and professionals from other disciplines, public speaking, and daily self-care activities.
What's the most rewarding and challenging part of your work?
Collaborating with students to support structural changes in institutions that have historically discriminated against and dehumanized people of various group memberships. Being impatient toward oppressive policies and practices while being realistic that change requires organized action.
What would you be doing if you hadn't followed this career path?
Neuroscience or social psychology
How do you relax when you're not at work?
Listening to music and going to concerts, running, backpacking on the Appalachian Trail, visiting Maryland/Delaware beaches, watching animal documentaries, going out to eat with my wife and kids, and reading nonfiction.
What's playing in your car right now?
Lately, I've been biking to work listening to Beach House, Two Feet, A Tribe Called Quest, The National, Wax Taylor, Common, Bob Dylan, Kate Tempest, Chet Faker, At the Drive-in, and Tool.
What would you most like to tell yourself at age 13?
Don't wait until your early twenties to read Camus, Sartre, Frankl, Tillich, and Kierkegaard.
You're happiest when....
I am lost in my mind seeking better questions to identify just solutions for the conundrums of human existence.