Speakers Dr. JULIANA SVISTOVA, associate professor of social work, is a community engaged, interdisciplinary scholar in the fields of social work, disaster studies, social policy and public health/education. Svistova’s scholarship is centered around community development and participatory approaches to social change in the local and global environments. She has particular teaching interests in social work practice with communities and organizations, community building, international social work and social development and qualitative research/research methodology. She has more than a dozen published works relating to these subjects and has spoken at prestigious conferences for more than a decade, allowing her to stay connected with current events while simultaneously bringing new insights to her instruction at KU. Born in Latvia, Svistova earned her master’s and Ph.D. in Social Work from the University at Albany, State University of New York. EMILYWILLOW of West Chester, Pa., graduates today with a Master of Education in art education. Willow graduated from KU with a Bachelor of Science in art education in 2015. While working toward her master’s degree, she began to look at education and art through a more political lens, and her projects reflected current events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter movement, election stresses, immigration issues and LGBTQIA+ and women’s rights. Willow is a high school art teacher in Penn-Delco School District, Aston, Pa., and has taught at Sun Valley High School for the past five years. At Sun Valley, Willow teaches foundations of art courses, AP art and design and a Peer Buddy art class that combines students who have a variety of disabilities with general education students to create friendships and share their love of art. She plans to work at Sun Valley until she retires, many years down the road. Willow aims to inspire students to not only create art, but to love the process, see art in the world around them and make art a part of their lives forever. She hopes her students will pursue an art career and has influenced past students to apply to KU, many of whom have already been accepted.
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