Meredith C.F. Powers

Dr. Meredith C.F. Powers (she/her/hers) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at UNC Greensboro. She teaches, facilitates community-engaged, action research, and has co-authored and co-edited a growing body of open-access work on topics of climate justice, climate migration, ecosocial worldviews, eco-therapeutic practices for healing, ecosocial work, and justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. She has presented her research locally, nationally and internationally at professional conferences, including being invited as a keynote speaker at the United Nations for World Social Work Day (2018). She was honored with the inaugural “Environmental Justice Champion Award” (2021) at the annual Virtual Conference on Environmental Justice conference (hosted by the Institute for Social Work and Environmental Justice/Adelphi University). Dr. Powers is the founding Director of the Climate Justice Program of the International Federation of Social Workers. With this role, she is the producer and co-host of new podcast project called JAM Sessions. This is an open access, international and multilingual podcast on topics such as climate justice, ecosocial work, and ecosocial worldviews. She also established and co-administers the global Green / Environmental Social Work Collaborative Network. Nationally, Dr. Powers serves as a member of the Grand Challenges for Social Work committee, “Create Social Responses to a Changing Environment.” Dr. Powers is a founding board member of the “IDEAL League”, which has the mission to provide equitable access to inclusive literacy materials and educational activities that affirm, advocate for, and empower youth, including climate literacy. Additionally, Dr. Powers has initiated and co-led several local, community-engaged, action research projects, such as, “Parks for All People”, for the extensive enhancement of Smith Active Adult Center’s outdoor recreation spaces; “Climates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice”, focused on global and local climate migration and resettlement; and, currently, “All That We Share”, an inclusive, community public art project that serves to enhance our community as we advocate for inclusive excellence, celebrate our diversity, and strengthen our bonds to each other and our environment.

There are 29 included publications by Meredith C.F. Powers :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Anti-Racist Social Work: Transformative Change to Promote Climate Justice and Racial Equity 2020 405 The Chinese philosopher, Confucius once said, “the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.” In the context of the ongoing global climate crisis, and the recent global health pandemic due to COVID-19, we often speak of “risk factor...
Applying a Social Justice Framework to Photovoice Research on Environmental Issues: A Comprehensive Literature Review 2012 1393 The need to address the environmental crisis is becoming more urgent. The consequences of unsustainable environmental practices are detrimental to the wellbeing of people globally as well as the environment. This is of concern to social workers as th...
Climate Change, Ecology, and Justice 2020 202 The world is in a global environmental crisis as a result of powerful human-caused situations: climate change, human-induced destruction, environmental injustice, and ecological devastation of our land, air, water, and living beings. The consequences...
Climate Justice and Social Work 2019 358 While the global climate crisis impacts all of us, those who are marginalized or oppressed experience it to an even greater extent. Much of the burden of unsustainable consumption patterns has fallen on the most vulnerable people in the world, who ty...
Climate Justice Literacy [video recording] 2021 403 Video recording of a lecture given February 12, 2021 as part of the UNCG Sustainability Lecture & Dialogue Series.
Co-Creating a “Sustainable New Normal” for Social Work and Beyond: Embracing an Ecosocial Worldview 2021 1085 We have an opportunity to help shape new systems and structures that redress injustices and course correct us for a trajectory that is infinitely better than the one on which we are now set. We can co-create a sustainable new normal, intentionally an...
Degrowth for transformational alternatives as radical social work practice 2019 1598 Historically, and in modern times, social workers have been culpable in perpetuating the very systems of oppression that we seek to eliminate. This happens as we are part of cultures and economies that operate out of the growth ideology. Acting in ac...
Disaster, Environmental Justice, and Eco-Therapy: Social Work in the Face of Climate Change 2018 196 We live in a world plagued with environmental disasters and injustices of all kinds and we know the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters are due to climate change1-- which is directly exacerbated by global human behavior. Thankfull...
Ecosocial work and social change in community practice 2019 1019 This special issue entitled, “Ecosocial Work and Social Change in Community Practice,” focuses on an array of contexts, policies, practices, and challenges as well as successes related to an emerging vision for ecosocial work. Ecosocial work is socia...
Embracing an ecosocial worldview for climate justice and collective healing 2021 1150 We are faced with an ongoing global climate crisis, the more recent public health crisis brought on by COVID-19, increased racial and police violence, ableism, and the intersecting injustices surrounding gender and sexuality. From an autoethnographic...
Environmental Leadership through Campus Project Teams: Green Structures for Linking Students, Faculty, and Staff 2012 1111 Traditional leadership models and organizational structures are an impediment to the full realization of the mission of most campus sustainability offices. At the University of South Carolina, applying green values across the campus has gone beyond t...
Environmental migration: Social work at the nexus of climate change and global migration 2018 1486 Environmental migrants are caught at the nexus of the climate crisis and the global migrant crisis. The problems of the migrant crisis are recognized globally as they are linked to the complex issues being addressed by the United Nations’ Sustainable...
Establishing a professional career that addresses the environmental crisis 2017 195 Some of you may be wondering how you could focus your future social work career on environmental issues. Others may not yet see the connection between environmental issues and social work; I hope to clarify this for you in this essay. Wherever you ar...
Foreward [from EcoSocial Work: Environmental Practice and Advocacy] 2023 102 I imagine many of you are eager to read all the wonderful expertise and wisdom found in this book on ecosocial work practice, and some may feel desperate to find hope, solace, and tangible ways to move to action. I commend you, but also urge you: “Do...
From Snapshot to Civic Action: A Photovoice Facilitator’s Manual 2012 2348 This photovoice facilitator’s manual is a product developed to help research facilitators design and implement a comprehensive photovoice research project in collaboration with community stakeholders. Photovoice is a popular technique used for commun...
Green Social Work for Environmental Justice: Implications for International Social Workers 2018 8272 Green social work is a holistic perspective that seeks to secure the well-being of people and the planet through reforming socio-political power structures (Dominelli, 2012). It is an eco-centric perspective that respects not only humans, but also va...
International perspectives on eco-social work practice [Audio podcast episode] 2022 91 The Eco-Social Work in Australia podcast series has been expanded to include guest interviews with social work professionals who either practice outside of Australia or with individuals who work in closely allied fields, such as public health or psyc...
Meredith Powers, PhD, MSW: “We, as a profession, think about “person and environment”, but it’s really the political, social & economic. Often, we leave the physical part out of it.” [Audio Podcast] 2021 102 Podcast description: Meredith Powers, PhD, MSW, is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She currently teaches Environmental Justice and serves as a Field Liaison for social work students working with immigrant and...
Preparing social workers for ecosocial work practice and community building 2019 2211 In the context of the global ecological crisis, the profession of social work is increasingly shifting to embrace an ecosocial lens, recognizing the centrality of the ecological environment for human existence and the inextricable linkages of wellbei...
Radical Self-Care for Social Workers in the Global Climate Crisis 2020 1758 Gradual environmental degradation, more extreme climate change events, and related environmental injustices affect individuals and communities every day. Social work entities around the world are increasingly highlighting professional responsibilitie...
Raising awareness of transformative ecosocial work: Participatory action research with Australian practitioners 2020 1139 This article reports on Participatory Action Research with social work practitioners who collaboratively explored the effects on professional practice when practitioners raise their awareness of an ecosocial work approach. Although contemporary resea...
Seeing the Connections: Climate Change and Migration 2019 342 As social workers we are taught to see how things are interconnected-person in environment. We often work in situations to intervene with service users when the environment is no longer healthy or sustainable, such as in a case of domestic violence, ...
Social work promoting community and environmental sustainability: A workbook for global social workers and educators (Volume 2) 2018 6491 Incredible work is being done all over the world by social workers addressing issues at the nexus of community and environmental sustainability. We hope this book will inspire you, whether you have been involved with these issues for decades, or you ...
Social work promoting community and environmental sustainability: A workbook for global social workers and educators (Volume 3) 2019 6965 Around the world social workers are coming alongside communities that are unfairly impacted by climate injustices and helping to create solutions. In these roles, we must consider the opportunities of promoting community and environmental sustainabil...
Social Work Promoting Community and Environmental Sustainability: A Workbook for Social Work Practitioners and Educators (Volume 1) 2017 19303 Incredible work is being done all over the world by social workers addressing issues at the nexusof community and environmental sustainability. Whether you are a longtime supporter of socialworkers investing in social and environmental sustainability...
Sustaining Climate Justice Work: Reflections on Being “Grounded” 2021 406 As the COVID-19 pandemic has caused us all to take necessary and continuous measures for health precautions, at times it has felt a bit like “being grounded” - like when we were kids and suffered “grounding” as a punishment so we couldn’t go out and ...
Transforming the profession: Social workers’ expanding response to the environmental crisis 2016 549 With mounting scientific evidence about the global environmental crisis, an urgent call to action exists promoting sustainable environmental practices that enhance the wellbeing of humans and the ecological systems in which they live (Besthorn 2002, ...
The Urgent Need for Advocacy Work in Creating a “New Normal” for People and Planet 2020 265 Social workers are essential workers in all communities and across all levels of practice. Now, more than ever, we ALL need to urgently advocate as we create a “new normal” with justice for people and planet. In considering what our “new normal” shou...
Using Photovoice to Develop a Grounded Theory of Socio-Environmental Attributes Influencing the Health of Community Environments 2014 2065 In this study, we used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) method, ‘photovoice’, to engage eighteen residents living in public housing in an examination of person-in-environment factors perceived to facilitate or hinder health and well-be...

Odum Institute Dataverse Network :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Meredith Powers, PhD, MSW: “We, as a profession, think about “person and environment”, but it’s really the political, social & economic. Often, we leave the physical part out of it.” [Audio Podcast] 2021 102 Podcast description: Meredith Powers, PhD, MSW, is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She currently teaches Environmental Justice and serves as a Field Liaison for social work students working with immigrant and...