Courtney McDermott

Courtney McDermott is an Associate Teaching Professor and the Director of Field Education for the School of Social Work at UMSL. She coordinates the field education program for the MSW students and teaches the foundation seminar course and a BSW course on social policy. She joined the School of Social Work faculty in 2012 as the Associate Director of Field Education.

She has her B.A. from the University of Iowa, her MSW from Saint Louis University and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the state of Missouri.

Prior to joining the faculty at UMSL, Courtney served as the Assistant Director at Let’s Start, an agency that works with formerly incarcerated mothers and their children. While there, she managed all the agency grants and developed agency programs. She also worked for Vision for Children at Risk/the St. Louis Metropolitan Children’s Agenda where she published three versions of the Children of Metropolitan St. Louis Report and staffed collaborations focused on child welfare and early childhood education.

During her time at UMSL, she has secured over $30,000 in grants to develop programs focused on macro-level social work including policy practice and racial equity in field placements and for support of the Civil Rights tour which she developed and co-taught through the Pierre Laclede Honors College. A program she developed, Social Work Conversations has won numerous campus awards and she received the inaugural Faculty Excellence in Civic Engagement Award in 2018 for her community involvement.

She is currently a peer reviewer for The Field Educator journal, serves on UMSL’s Civic Engagement Committee, the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University’s Racial Equity Advisory Board and the Old North Restoration Group’s Board of Directors as Secretary.

Courses Taught

SOCWRK 3210: Social Issues & Social Policy Development
SOCWRK 4850: Supervised BSW Integrative Field Experience Seminar II
SOCWRK SOC: WK 4851 - Integrative Field Seminar II
SOCWRK 2030: Civil Rights Trail Tour
Honors 2030-04: History of the Civil Rights Movement in St. Louis

Education

MSW, St. Louis University (2002)
BA, University of Iowa (1996)

Recent Publications

Peer-reviewed journals

McDermott, C., Banks Hudson, K., Rosenthal, P.A. & Jones, C.D. (2018). Assessing for racial equity capacity in field placements. Field Educator, Practice Digest 8(1), 1-7.

McDermott, C., Stafford, J.D. & Johnson, S.D. (2021). Racial equity as a human rights issue:

Field agency practices and field instructors’ knowledge and attitudes. Journal of Human Rights and Social Work https://doi.org/10.1007/s41134-020-00155-9

See Courtney McDermott's CV for a complete list of publications.

School of Social Work Service

2019-Present Community Engagement and Economic Development Strategic Planning Committee
2017 & 2020 Faculty advisor for the Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol
2016-Present Chair, BSW Professional Development Ad-hoc Committee
2015-2018 Coordinator of the annual bus trip to Jefferson City for Student Advocacy Day
2015-Present Chair, Awards and Scholarship Committee
2016-Present Social Work Conversations, Creator and Facilitator,
2017 UMSL Student Involvement Best Program of the Year Award and
2020 UMSL Student Involvement Best Sustained Program
2015- Present BSW Professional Development Workshop, Co-creator & Co-facilitator
2018, 2017 Faculty Search Committee
& 2014
2013- Present MSW Admissions Committee
2012- Present BSW Admissions Committee