Dawn Peterson, MSW,LICSW Recognized for Outstanding Field Supervision with MSW Students

The Department of Social Work at the University of Minnesota Duluth is pleased to announce the 3rd annual "Outstanding MSW Field Supervisor and Civic Engagement Award". This is an award that recognizes a field supervisor who has demonstrated outstanding personal and professional civic engagement. "Civic engagement" includes providing quality supervision to students completing their field placements, encouraging students' involvement in their communities both in their fieldwork and outside of field activities. The Department seeks to recognize field supervisors who go "above and beyond" in their work with MSW students and in their communities.

The recipient for 2012 is Dawn Peterson, MSW.LICSW. Dawn is a 2005 graduate of the UMD MSW Program and is the Clinical Director at Woodland Hills in Duluth. Dawn has provided clinical supervision to residential and day treatment programs at Woodland Hills since 2009. She started with Woodland Hills in 1989, providing supervision to youth at the Chisolm House Work Program.

Dawn was nominated by two MSW alumni who noted Dawn's committment to social justice and civic engagement by her encouragement of field student's participation in a variety of community events including Take Back the Night, PAVSA, and discrimination and racism roundtables and discussions in the Duluth Community. Additionally, they indicated that "Dawn will not give her field placement students the answer to their academic and philosophical questions, but she will challenge them to critically think about and reach a conclusion on their own". Dawn was recognized by the Department and her peers at the Annual Fall Field Supervisor Training Luncheon on October 2, 2012.