38th Annual Social Work Day at the United Nations
Moving Toward Food Security for All:
The Role of Social Work
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Noon – 2 p.m. EST
This event was held virtually on Zoom.
Video: 2022 Social Work Day at the UN
Dr. Robin Sakina Mama
Dr. Robin Sakina Mama is Dean of the School of Social Work at Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey. In 2009 the school began the Virginia A. Cory Community Garden at Monmouth University. The garden has served as a place for community members to grow their own produce as well as to donate fresh produce to food insecure families in the area. Annually the garden donates anywhere from 2-3,000 pounds of fresh produce which is donated to eight local food pantries or other service organizations. Dr. Mama wrote about Monmouth’s community garden in The Handbook of Green Social Work, edited by Lena Dominelli. Learn more information about the Virginia A. Cory Community Garden.
Dr. Seki Richemont
Dr. Seki Richemont, a national of Ivory Coast, is a trained medical doctor who specializes in food and nutrition security with a focus on nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems. He has more than eight years of experience with UN organizations, namely FAO, UNICEF and lastly IFAD, where he has supported countries and regional economic communities to develop policies and programs aiming at improving food and nutrition security through better mainstreaming of nutrition into agricultural and food systems sectors. He is supporting various programs targeting social change for food security and better nutrition within beneficiary communities through involvement of social work and implementation of social behavioral change communication and food and nutrition security education.
Hilary N. Weaver
Hilary N. Weaver, DSW (Lakota) is a Professor and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the School of Social Work, University at Buffalo (State University of New York). She received her BS from Antioch College in social work with a cross-cultural studies focus and her MSW and DSW from Columbia University. Her teaching, research, and service focus on cultural issues in the helping process with an emphasis on Indigenous populations. Dr. Weaver received funding from the National Cancer Institute to develop and test a culturally-grounded wellness curriculum for urban Native American youth, the Healthy Living in Two Worlds program. She is a member of NASW, Chair-elect of the CSWE board of directors, Global Indigenous Commissioner for IFSW, and currently serves as President of the Indigenous and Tribal Social Work Educators’ Association (formerly American Indian Alaska Native Social Work Educators’ Association). She was inducted as an NASW Social Work Pioneer in 2020 and was named the American Public Health Association’s Public Health Social Worker of the Year in 2020.
Dr. Weaver has presented her work regionally, nationally, and internationally including presenting at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations in 2005-2008, 2013-2019, and 2021. She has numerous publications including the text, Explorations in Cultural Competence: Journeys to the Four Directions (2005), the edited book, Social Issues in Contemporary Native America: Reflections from Turtle Island (2014), Trauma and Resilience in the Lives of Contemporary Native Americans: Reclaiming our Balance, Restoring our Wellbeing (2019), and the edited volume Routledge International Handbook of Indigenous Resilience (2022).