Student Scholarships at the USF School of Social Work

Dr. Guitele Jeudy Rahill, Associate Professor in the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences (CBCS), received her MSW (‘93) and Ph.D. (‘08) from Florida International University (FIU) where she was a Presidential Fellow. Dr. Rahill focuses on reducing health and mental health disparities for Haitians. Specifically, she is interested in syndemic interactions among traditional Haitian health beliefs and practices, structural violence, gender-based inequities, and non-partner sexual violence against females, rape empathy, geographical disasters, trauma, and HIV as a risk factor. She also focuses on adapting evidence-based behavioral interventions for the Haiti-context.

Dr. Rahill is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and author of the novella entitled Violated. Along with colleagues and USF students, she recently published one of the first works to examine the affective outcomes of non-partner sexual violence against women in post-disaster settings, i.e., The Language of Sexual Violence in Haiti: Perceptions of Victims, Community-level Workers, and Health Care Providers, and Symptoms of PTSD in a sample of female victims of sexual violence in post-earthquake Haiti. Most recently, she and colleagues published Adapting an evidence-based Intervention for HIV to avail access to testing and risk reduction counseling for female victims of sexual violence in post-earthquake Haiti. She has also published several peer reviewed articles in venues such as the American Journal of Public health, AIDS Care, the Journal of Affective Disorders, the Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health, the American Journal of Psychotherapy, and the Journal of Health care for the Poor and Underserved.

Michiel Adriaan (Riaan) van Zyl, Ph.D. is Director of the USF School of Social Work. He received his MSW (‘78) from the Rand Afrikaans University and his Ph.D. (‘86) from the University of Natal in South Africa.

Dr. Van Zyl’s academic background and education provided him with an international perspective of social work education and knowledge building, in particular in sub-Sahara Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He played a leading role in the enhancement of educational experiences of students at different institutions.

Dr. Van Zyl conducted several studies on new strategies to improve the identification of persons unaware of their HIV-1 infection and successfully link them to HIV testing, treatment, and prevention interventions. He collaborated on studies of STDs, teenage pregnancy prevention, prevention of child abuse and neglect, and other health-risk behaviors. His interest in prevention research also includes chronic disease and health disparities. His research interest in child welfare focusses on the prevention of child abuse and neglect, child welfare practice models and quality improvement in social service delivery. He led initiatives to curtail the crises of over-crowding in prisons and collaborated across sectors in advancing implementation science. His work on measurement impacted various fields of practice including corrections, education, prevention of behavioral problems in young children, risk reduction, and organizational change.

Dr. Van Zyl collaborated on 27 funded research projects as an investigator or evaluator.