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“Social work finds you, not the other way around.” <br /> <br /> Those words from Miranda Blackburn’s graduate advisor proved to be true. “I feel like that was really true for me - the career came at the right time and really fit my personal and professional goals at the time.” Today, she’s a clinical social worker with a decade of experience and teaches at West Liberty University’s social work program in West Virginia. Her career has taken her into corrections, in-patient, residential, military and outpatient settings. Now, she’s earning her doctoral degree in social work through Millersville’s online program. <br /> <br /> Blackburn wasn’t always sure that she wanted a career in the field. “My bachelor’s degree was really focused on psychology and neuroscience, which I loved, but had trouble translating into a career,” shares Blackburn. “I didn't really learn about what social work was about until I started looking into graduate schools while working as a case manager on a crisis support unit.” What attracted her to the profession, she says, was the focus on human connection. <br /> <br /> “The importance of human connection really attracted me to the approach that social work uses to solve social issues and support individuals,” she shares. “Social work has such a great big picture approach that allows us to view individuals as the expert in their experience while considering how other systems may be impacting whatever issues or concerns they might be facing.” <br /> <br /> One of Blackburn’s passions is working in trauma-informed program development and implementation. In the doctoral program, she’s focusing her research on suicide and help seeking behavior. Still in the early stages of her research, she’s begun gathering data from social workers on their own experiences with mental health. “It is such a sensitive and stigma laden topic and I recognize how meaningful it is when social workers are willing to talk about these experiences,” she explains. <br /> <br /> Blackburn enrolled in Millersville’s doctoral program after leaving another and hopes to work with evidence-based program development and agency consultation upon graduation. CONTINUED IN COMMENTS
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