Every year, the UW's six health sciences schools and the Magnuson Scholar Program nominate a scholar from their respective school on the basis of outstanding academic performance and potential contributions to health sciences research. The UW School of Social Work has selected Danae Dotolo who earned her M.A. in 2014 as a transdisciplinary scholar trained in social work and bioethics. Her research focuses on health practice and communication with vulnerable populations in critical and end-of-life care settings—with a particular interest in LGBT health equity. For her dissertation, she is analyzing 43 interviews with LGBT people about their experiences caring for partners who were admitted to intensive care units and/or died after hospitalization.
The aim of her research is to identify mechanisms that contribute to health disparities and improve practice by developing more inclusive care models. Danae has worked with Dr. Megan Moore on studies testing the effectiveness of a social work intervention with patients who have experienced traumatic brain injury. Danae’s teaching experience includes participating as a junior faculty member and a member of the social work planning team for the UW Health Sciences Interprofessional Education program.
She has also worked, as a teaching fellow in a year-long seminar on oncology and palliative care social work practice, with Dr. Taryn Lindhorst who writes, “Danae is uniquely poised to undertake this work. Her background in research, her understanding of the health care system, and her interest in deeply theorizing her work all demonstrate her capacity to be one of the important social welfare scholars of the next generation.”