Three new tenure-track faculty will join School of Social Welfare in fall 2024

Three new tenure-track faculty will join the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare as assistant professors this fall.

Kathryn Berringer, Logan Shinkai Knight and Ricka Mammah will start their roles in August 2024. The group brings a variety of research interests and teaching experiences to the school.

Kathryn R. Berringer

Kathryn R. Berringer (she/her) comes to KU from the University of Michigan, where she will complete her PhD in the Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Anthropology this spring.

Berringer’s research explores paradoxes inherent in contemporary LGBTQ+ social movement work in the United States, particularly in the face of escalating anti-LGBTQ political mobilization. For the past five years, she has been involved in a long-term community-based partnership with an LGBTQ+ youth center in Detroit, where she conducts ethnographic research.

Her teaching experience includes teaching graduate social work courses and undergraduate anthropology courses at the University of Michigan. Berringer worked for two years as a research project coordinator and supportive services coordinator at the Chicago Center for HIV Elimination. She previously worked in HIV prevention and linkage-to-care in Washington, D.C.

Berringer earned a master’s degree in social service administration from The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. She holds a bachelor’s degree in religion from Carleton College.

Logan Shinkai Knight

Logan Shinkai Knight (she/her) comes to KU from The Ohio State University College of Social Work. She goes by Kai and will complete a PhD in social work this May.

Knight’s research focuses on strategies for promoting resilience in people who have experienced human trafficking. Through participatory and critical qualitative methodologies, her research aims to be a platform for these oppressed and vulnerable groups to be heard as powerful authors of their own knowledge and agents of change within the academic and wider community.

Her teaching experience includes teaching undergraduate and graduate social work courses at Ohio State, and teaching writing courses at Singapore Management University. Knight’s practice experience includes work in client care with a nonprofit serving trauma survivors.

Knight earned an MSW from Ferris State University. She completed a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in language from the National University of Singapore.

Ricka Mammah

Ricka Mammah (she/her) comes to KU from The University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work, where she will complete a PhD in social work in June.

Mammah’s research investigates issues related to the intersection between gender-based violence and mental health among immigrants. She is also passionate about promoting culturally tailored interventions for immigrants and enhancing service delivery, to foster positive change and improve the well-being of diverse communities.

Her teaching experience includes teaching BSW and MSW courses at UT Arlington. Mammah is a licensed master social worker with over six years of direct practice experience. She has worked as a client advocate for refugee populations, a research coordinator for HIV+ women of color, and a foster and adoption case manager.

Mammah holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resource Management and a Master of Social Work from Stephen F. Austin State University. She earned her Bachelor of Social Work from Texas A&M University.