2022 ACBS Social Work Award

The ACBS Social Work SIG Board is delighted to announce Jennifer Shepard Payne, PhD, LCSW, as the recipient of the 2022 ACBS Social Work Award. Dr. Payne’s innovative work covers all three of the award areas: social work innovation, social justice, and CBS advancement within social work.

Dr. Payne has developed an adaptation of ACT that is culturally tailored to African-Americans suffering from social injustice and race-related trauma. Her upcoming book Out of the fire: Healing Black trauma caused by systemic racism using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy will be released by New Harbinger in December 2022.

Matt Boone, LCSW, nominated Dr. Payne for this award, and noting the importance of her work said, “creating and disseminating culturally competent treatments is inherently a social justice move.”

Dr. Payne currently serves as a research scientist and clinician at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress (CCFTS) and at the Center for the Neuroscience of Social Injustice. She is also an assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Within ACBS, Dr. Payne has served on the Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, has served as co-coordinator of the DEI SIG, and has presented in SIG webinars. In addition, Dr. Payne serves on the board of MEND, a nonprofit devoted to supporting and training clinicians of color to help alleviate the suffering of intergenerational and racial trauma.

Learn more about Dr. Payne’s work here.

Learn more about the ACBS Social Work award here.