Dr. Kanako Okuda Joins BUSSW as Assistant Dean of Practicum (Field) Education and Clinical Associate Professor
BUSSW is pleased to announce that Dr. Kanako Okuda will take on the role of assistant dean of practicum (field) education effective Monday, February 3rd. Dr. Okuda will also join the school’s faculty as a clinical associate professor.
Dr. Okuda is a social work educator, scholar, and practitioner. She has been director of practicum education for the last 13 years, most recently as the director of field education at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. Prior to that, she was the director of field education and assistant professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and previously, director of field education at Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, CUNY. Prior to working at Hunter, Dr. Okuda was an education coordinator, field instructor, and lecturer at Columbia University School of Social Work.
Dr. Okuda cares deeply about practicum education and how students make meaning out of their learning through service. She envisions practicum education as a vital bridge connecting students, social work programs, and the communities they serve. She is dedicated to transforming students’ practicum experiences by employing innovative tools tailored to diverse learning strengths and has partnered with various social work practicum educators on research and advocacy initiatives to improve students’ learning outcomes. To address student anxiety in practicum education, she developed a resource, Fieldanxiety.com, to help guide students to embrace their vulnerability. This resource has been widely adopted by social work programs in North America.
In 2020, Dr. Okuda was selected as a Field Research Scholar by the Transforming Field Education Landscape (TFEL) Project at the University of Calgary, supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
In the advocacy sphere, Dr. Okuda is one of the founding members of the Practicum Education Directors’ group of the Voting Is Social Work campaign to mobilize voter participation nationwide through practicum education. In addition, she has been actively involved in social justice throughout her career by designing and facilitating workshops for students and the community.
Dr. Okuda is also a practicing clinical social worker, serving hard-to-reach populations through tele-health mental health services. She began her social work career in child welfare and later worked as a pediatric oncology social worker, offering psychosocial services to her patients and their families at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.
Dr. Okuda holds a Bachelor of Science degree in social work from Lehman College, a Master of Science in social work (MSW) from Columbia University School of Social Work, and a Doctor of Social Work (DSW) from Rutgers University School of Social Work. Her publications encompass scholarship on social justice, practicum education, social work students’ anxiety, meaning making in social work, spirituality in practice, and health social work.