2025 Plenary Speakers
We’re thrilled to bring dynamic speakers to our 2025 Annual Conference!
Wednesday, March 12, 2024
9:30 am – 11:30 pm | Welcome & Plenary I
AI and Social work: Benefits, Challenges, Ethics, and Practical Use by Dr. Amanda Baranski, LCSW
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming industries worldwide, and social work is no exception. This engaging and interactive workshop will explore the evolving role of AI in social work, offering insights into its potential to revolutionize the profession while addressing the critical ethical considerations and challenges that arise with its integration.
Participants will begin with an overview of AI and its relevance to modern social work, including a brief explanation of neural networks and machine learning. Through discussions, a handout, and real-world examples, the workshop will cover the dual nature of AI’s impact: its ability to enhance service delivery and professional development while also posing risks, such as bias, data privacy concerns, and ethical dilemmas.
Dr. Amanda Baranski is a dedicated social work educator and the current President of the National Association of Social Workers, Colorado Chapter. Based in Denver, Colorado, she serves as a faculty member supporting MSW students and has extensive teaching experience across BSW, MSW, and DSW programs.
With a rich clinical background in hospital social work, mental health, recovery services, education, mediation, and consultation, Dr. Baranski brings a wealth of expertise to her work. She is skilled in supervising and delivering services to diverse populations within recovery-oriented care systems and excels at fostering collaborative relationships with clients, teams, and programs alike.
Dr. Baranski’s specialized areas of focus include artificial intelligence in social work, psychedelics in mental health, ambiguous grief and loss, queer issues, mental illness, and substance use disorders. She combines her clinical experience and innovative perspective to inspire and inform social work practice.
Thursday, March 13, 2025
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm | Plenary II
Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times by Dr. Arthur Romano
When we think of courage, famous people such as spokespersons, celebrities, athletes, military generals, or highly recognizable leaders tend to come to mind. Popular discourse about leaders often leaves little room to explore the relevance of courageous action in our lives. When discussing courage in our society, we omit the social conditions that support the development of courageous qualities in people. Instead, courageous leaders are often thought of as somehow having the “it factor” of courage. They may be born that way, have a natural proclivity toward taking risks, a higher threshold for pain, or are innately adept at making wise choices when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. This is far from the truth however, as people are not born courageous but instead become courageous, as they become bolder with the support of key people around them.
In this program, Dr. Arthur Romano, explores how we all can deepen our study and practice of courageous leadership. He draws on extensive research of people that have successfully navigated the challenges of conflict and violence and risen up to take compassionate and strategic action when others thought it was impossible. He grounds his work in nonviolence principles and key ideas that animated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and provide a clear path to action. In this talk, participants explore their attitudes and approaches toward conflict and inequality and engage with practical models that support navigating change, dealing with conflict and developing organizational models that can withstand and even thrive in the face of increasing uncertainty.
Arthur Romano is an Associate Professor at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and The Elise Boulding Scholar Practitioner for the National Peace Academy. He is the founder of the Program on Urban Peacebuilding at the Carter School and has over 25 years of experience creating innovative and participatory education models with communities affected by conflict and violence. His research interests include peacebuilding in urban settings, nonviolent social movements, grassroots truth-telling processes, restorative justice, and experiential education. His recent book, Racial Justice and Nonviolence Education: Building the Beloved Community, One Block at a Time, examines the role that community-based educators in violence-affected cities play in building capacity to disrupt and transform cycles of violence.
Dr. Romano regularly consults and collaborates with diverse stakeholders, including policymakers, youth, activists, and artists, to co-create knowledge through action research. He has also served as a founding advisor and established long-term partnerships with organizations working on urban peacebuilding and violence prevention, such as the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence (CTCN) and the Truthtelling Project (TTP). CTCN offers high impact community-led educational programs in violence-affected neighborhoods in the state of Connecticut.TTP supports community members who experience police violence and was recognized as a pioneering national organization for its racial justice and reparations work.
Dr. Romano’s international work focuses on peace education and citizen diplomacy. He has developed conflict resolution workshops for hip hop artists from around the world through the U.S. State Department-funded Next Level Program. He has facilitated nonviolence trainings for former rebel fighters from the Niger Delta as part of the Nigerian Presidential Amnesty Program. In East Asia, he has published on peace education in Hiroshima, Japan and contributed to problem-solving workshops in South Korea with North Korean defectors, national and international organizations interested in people-to-people peacebuilding. Dr. Romano co-leads the Peacelearner website with his colleague Daryn Cambridge which offers free resources on peace education to visitors from over 100 countries.
Student Poster Presentations
Join us at the 2025 NASW Arkansas Annual Conference and participate in the Student Presentations and Competition! All BSW and MSW students are welcome to participate. This is a fun way to practice your presentation and networking skills in a supportive environment. This is also a good way for the social work programs around the state to highlight student accomplishments.
There will be designated times at the conference for you to present your work. The poster sessions will be held on Thursday, March 13, 2025.
Presentation/Poster Categories
Category 1: Innovative programs or interventions from field placement (internship) experience. Innovative is defined as new ways to address old problems. Programs or interventions may include therapeutic models, funding sources, partnerships, or other cutting-edge ideas for helping social work clients or the social work profession.
Category 2: Public policy that is current or relevant to social work practice. Public policy presentation submissions must include the following: presentation defines the social policy or issue clearly; presentation states the policy as it currently is and analyzes its strengths and limitations; presentation identifies vulnerable and at-risk populations and specific ways in which these groups are impacted by the current policy; presentation incorporates the six core values of the social work profession identified in the NASW Code of Ethics into the overall policy analysis; presentation states at least five recommendations to improve current policy. These recommendations should incorporate all levels of social work practice and may include examples of how other states have addressed this same policy issue.
Category 3: Graduate research project or practice evaluation. This should be a completed project. This may be the student’s work OR something that a student worked on with a faculty member or community practitioner. (Masters students only)
Student Presentation Proposal Guideline & Requirements
Review the Student Poster Presentation Guidelines.
Submit a poster presentation proposal by February 21, 2025. Proposal must be submitted using this Google Form: Student Poster Proposal.
Benefits of Presenting
- Opportunity to show your work to peers and professional community.
- Opportunity to network with other social workers (students and professionals).
- Potential recognition of high-quality work in presentation competition.
Awards
One winner will be selected from each category, in addition to an overall BSW winner and an overall MSW winner. Winners will be announced at the conference awards ceremony on Friday, March 14, 2025, 12:00 pm – 2:15 pm.
2025 10th Annual Social Work Advocates’ Dinner
Thursday, March 13, 2025 | 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Promoting Whole Health Through the Life Span
Join us for an inspiring evening at the 10th Annual Social Work Advocates' Dinner, where we will explore the dynamic intersections of health, wellness, and advocacy across the lifespan. This year’s theme, Promoting Whole Health Through the Life Span, underscores the critical role social workers and allied professionals play in fostering holistic well-being from early childhood through older adulthood.
The evening will feature four engaging presentations, each delivered by distinguished experts from diverse fields. These thought-provoking talks will offer fresh insights, innovative approaches, and practical strategies for promoting health and well-being across different stages of life.
2025 Annual Awards Celebration
Friday, March 14, 2025 | 12:00 pm – 2:15pm
Join us in honoring leaders in the profession and community who fully embody social work values and in celebrating Social Work Month! We are proud to honor the following outstanding leaders!
2025 Honorees
Ruth Fissel, LCSW
Annette Woodruff Lifetime Achievement
Stephanie Rose, DSW, LCSW, AADC, CS, DCC
Social Worker of the Year
Crystal Williams
MSW Student of the Year
Tabitha Watts
BSW Student of the Year
We Are the 22
Agency of the Year
Brittany Kelly
Citizen of the Year
Beth Coger
Elected Official of the Year