Field Team Bios

Meet the Field Team!!

Dr. Jackie Anderson, BSW Director/Associate Professor

Dr. Anderson is the BSW Director and Associate Professor in the Social Work program at Northeastern Illinois

University. Dr. Anderson earned her Ph.D. in social work from Loyola University Chicago. Her dissertation

explores the “Nature of Hope Among Women who Experience Homelessness.” She has taught social

work at Loyola University Chicago, Capella University, St. Augustine University and Aurora University.

She is a licensed psychotherapist specializing in trauma-informed care, and she is especially interested in

teaching field seminar, clinical foundations, policy, ethnicity, race and culture, and social welfare. She has

been a director of clinical services, a case management program administrator, a therapist, outreach

worker, and independent consultant for agencies interested in learning Harm Reduction and Motivational

Interviewing. Dr. Anderson has volunteered and provided consulting services at Deborah’s Place,

Chicago Women’s Health Center and Teen Living Programs and her current research involve training

staff to work with women who are homeless using a trauma-informed approach.

Email address: j-anderson10@neiu.edu

Crystal Cleggett, Director of BSW Field Education

Crystal Cleggett is a licensed Social Worker with over 20 years of experience working with children, adolescents, and adults from diverse backgrounds. She has extensive experience working within the mental health setting. For over 13 years she has worked in various departments within the inpatient psychiatric hospital setting. Crystal's role at NEIU is Field Instructor and Liaison as well as educating students within the foundation sequence courses Human Behavior and Social Environment and Practice. Currently, Crystal is an adjunct instructor and Field Liaison for Loyola University in Chicago. Crystal seeks to encourage the development of social work professionals’ as she believes that this field with its many facets and ever-changing dynamics is a wonderful journey to embark upon. Email address: c-cleggett@neiu.edu

Dra. Judith Susan Rocha is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and Director of Field Education at Northeastern Illinois University's Masters of Social Work program. As a proud Chicago Public Schools alumna, she is a strong believer and advocate for quality public education. All her social work degrees were completed at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Jane Addams College of Social Work. As a Mexicana born in Chicago and raised in the Little Village and Gage Park neighborhoods (both Chicago working class ethnic enclaves), by a hard-working single mother and loving older siblings, all Mexican-born; Dra. Rocha has always been interested in helping Latinx/a/o families navigate systems in order to live a better and more successful life. Research interests include Latinx-relevant social issues with a focus on family caregiving of older Latinas/os living with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia (ADRD). Her work in the past has included parent education and counseling for children and families in the southwest and southeast sides of Chicago, where resources are oftentimes few and opportunities for a higher quality of life can be challenging to reach. Through her dissertation, she developed a culturally responsive health education program for Latinas that are caring for a family member with dementia given that they are at higher risk of developing health conditions such as depression and reduced overall health. As a caregiver herself, providing care for her mother that was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease 15 years ago, there is a personal passion and commitment for making sure that those family members providing care to someone with this complex disease, are finding ways to stay healthy themselves. Included in the volunteer work she does is a program called La BROCHA that carries out free art workshops and activities for the Latinx community with a focus on elders 60 years of age and older. Social work is not only a career for her but a way of life. She started as an aviation flight major at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1995, never imagining she would instead be reaching these heights in the Social Work field as a Ph.D., two decades later in her own hometown of Chicago.

Osvaldo "Ozzie" Caballero, LCSW

Northeastern Illinois University alumni Instructor Osvaldo Caballero is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. He is the Program Manager at Metropolitan Family Services for Adult Protective Services program. He is responsible for ensuring that the program standards and procedures are followed throughout the day to day operations of the program and mentoring and supervising Supervisors to assist Case Managers with investigation and casework strategies to alleviate the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of persons 18 to 59 years old with disabilities or seniors 60 years and older who live in the community. Prior to his work at Metropolitan Family Services, Osvaldo was a Supervisor for the Circuit Court of Cook County, Social ServicesDepartment, where he managed misdemeanor Probation Officers, and was responsible for clients on court supervision or conditional discharge for criminal charges such as domestic violence, family violence, driving under the influence and sexual assaults just to name a few.

As an NEIU Social Work Intern, he started working in the field of domestic violence and has been doing such work throughout his career in one form or another. He has worked with children witnesses of violence, teens in dating violence prevention, adult victims and perpetrators of violence, and seniors. Osvaldo is passionate about exploring the intersections of interpersonal violence, gender, trauma, substance use, and mental illness. Email address: o-caballero@neiu.edu

Kim Davidson, LCSW

Kim Davidson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a social work trainer, and a Field Liaison/Social Work Instructor at Northeastern Illinois University. Kim has been practicing social work for 15 years. Prior to working at NEIU Full-Time, Kim was the Clinical Services Director at Deborah's Place for 7 years. As the Clinical Services Director, Kim was responsible for implementing all clinical programming throughout Deborah's Place. This included providing staff development opportunities, supervising case management and health services staff, overseeing the social work internship program and ensuring that Deborah's Place implemented their theoretical approaches and evidence-based practices throughout their housing programs. Prior to her role as Clinical Services Director, Kim worked as the Program Administrator for the Dolores’ Safe Haven and Patty Crowley Apartments of Deborah’s Place. Kim has also coordinated a drop-in program for persons experiencing homelessness, has provided HIV case management, and has worked extensively with women's health education. Kim is passionate about exploring the intersections of gender, trauma, substance use, mental illness, and homelessness and she works to incorporate this interest into her practice. Email address: k-davidson1@neiu.edu

Melissa Iverson, PhD, MA, MSW

Dr. Melissa Iverson, MA, MSW, holds dual graduate degrees in social work administration and gender studies from Loyola University Chicago. She has been practicing in the field of macro social work for the past thirteen years in various roles including administration, grant writing, fundraising, staff supervision, program implementation and evaluation, policy development, research, and budgetary planning.

Congratulations to Dr. Iverson, she received her doctorate in the social work program at Loyola University Chicago. She also teaches as a fulltime instructor in the social work program at Northeastern Illinois University and as an adjunct at Loyola University Chicago. In her role as a field instructor at NEIU, Melissa focuses on connecting classroom theory and learning to current social issues student see at their internships, providing support for students and helping them learn more about the importance of self-care.

Dr. Maribel Lopez

Dr. Lopez has experience working with individuals, couples and youth counseling. Dr. Lopez is engaged in community education in early childhood education, substance abuse, and domestic violence. Dr. Lopez’s mission is to promote Excellence: instill in individuals the desire to be excellent in everything they do. Foster Leadership: to empower and motivate people to take action. She believes Integrity: is an essential ingredient to live a successful life. Dr. Lopez is passionate about teaching and engaging in shared knowledge with her students in the classroom. Dr. Lopez is an Instructor and Field Liaison at NEIU. Dr. Lopez doctoral studies involved Latinas in Higher Education, she received her doctorate in Education from National Louis University in Chicago. Dr. Lopez holds a Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a concentration in Children and families.

Email address: ma-lopez@neiu.edu

Mary Reynolds, MA, MSW, LCSW, ICDVP, I/ECMH-C

In addition to teaching at NEIU, Mary Reynolds is the Vice President of Children's Services at Casa Central in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood. In that capacity, she supervises multi-level staff, as well as BSW and MSW-level students who provide therapy and case management support services to people impacted by trauma and violence; out-of-school time programming for children in kindergarten - 7th grades; and early childhood education and development services. She holds her MSW from Loyola University, where she also completed an MA in Gender Studies and is a graduate of the Erikson Institute with a post-graduate certificate in Infant Mental Health.

Mary has worked with children and families in child welfare, domestic violence, early childhood and youth development, and community mental health service settings since 2001. Since 2007, Mary has specialized in infancy and early childhood, working to support healthy attachments, recovery from trauma, and promotion of optimal early childhood and family development. Mary is trained in several evidence-based clinical intervention modalities focused on supporting people who have experienced complex trauma, including Child-Parent Psychotherapy, Attachment, Self-Regulation & Competency (ARC), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

Email address: m-reynolds3@neiu.edu

Shannon S. Wall, MSW

Northeastern Illinois University Instructor/Academic Advisor for the Bachelors of Social Work Program.

Shannon has a Bachelor’s of Arts (BA) in Psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, SIUC

(2002) and a Masters in Social Work (MSW) from Dominican University with a focus in Gerontology (2009). She

possesses 16+ years of experience and expertise working with older adults and persons with disabilities. She

also has extensive experience working with at risk individuals and families, housing assistance, and

community based services and consultancy.

Trainings and certificates: Housing Choice Voucher

(Sect.8), Adult Protective Services, Motivational Interviewing and Mental Health First Aid