Melanie Chung-Sherman, DSW, LCSW-S, CEDS
Adjunct Instructor
She/Her
![Melanie Chung-Sherman](/sites/default/files/styles/listings_page_square/public/2024-08/Standing%20headshot.MCS%20%282%29%20-%20Dr.%20Chung-Sherman%20DSW%20LCSW-S%20CEDS.jpg?itok=4SsUPb-I)
Biography
Dr. Melanie (JaeHee) Chung-Sherman, DSW, LCSW-S, CEDS (she/her/yeoja) is a licensed clinical social worker and TSBSWE-Board-approved clinical supervisor through the State of Texas. She also holds a clinical social work license in Louisiana. She is the Director of the Post-Graduate Clinical Social Work Fellowship Program at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) in partnership with Dallas Children's Medical Center and Parkland Hospital. She is also the Clinical Therapist Lead for UTSW’s Multidisciplinary Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic (MSOC), supervising Master-level clinicians (LCSW, LPC, and LMFT), MSW interns, and clinical social work fellows within a clinic that provides mental health services for over 11,000 patients in the North Texas area (Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex and beyond). She is part of UTSW's Outpatient Eating Disorder clinical team and helps facilitate NIH-funded eating disorder psychoeducational and art therapy groups to enhance social engagement in recovery for adults.
She received her Doctor of Social Work specializing in clinical practice from The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, as the first Asian-Pacific Islander to complete the DSW program. She speaks internationally, nationally, and state-wide regarding Asian-Pacific Islander mental health, severe mental illness, transracial adoption dynamics, eating disorders, suicide prevention within marginalized populations, and inclusive mental health care to combat mental health stigma, address power-based violence, and deconstruct structural oppression. Her passion is teaching the next generation of social work leaders--and breaking barriers so that everyone has an equitable seat at the table. She looks forward to an exceptional UA Fall 2024--Roll Tide!
Areas of Expertise
- Anti-racist Community Engaged Research
- Behavioral Health
- BIPOC Counseling
- Child Advocacy, Protection, and Welfare
- Chronic Mental Illness
- Clinical Social Work
- Collective Trauma
- Development Across the Life Course
- Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
- Evidence-Based Practice
- Family Counseling with Ethnic Minorities
- Health Disparities / Health Equity
- Historical Oppression and Marginalization
- Immigrants, Refugees, and Migrants
- Interpersonal Trauma
- Queer, Trans, and Nonbinary Counseling
- Racial Equity
- Racial Healing and Racial Justice
- Racism-based Violence
- Sexual and Gender Minorities
- Trauma and Trauma-informed Care
- Women's Health
Education
- Doctor of Social Work from University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
- Master of Science in Social Work from University of Texas at Arlington
- Bachelor of Fine Arts from Texas Wesleyan University
Highlights, Honors & Awards
DSW Writer’s Award to Advance Social Work and Social Justice, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa School of Social Work, May 2023
DSW Student Representative, DSW Committee, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa School of Social Work, 2022-2023
Region 3 State Representative, NASW-TX Board of Directors, 2019-2022
Diversity Analysis Committee, Founding Chair, NASW-TX, 2019-2022
NASW-TX Steering Committee, NASW-TX, 2019-2020
NASW REAL (Race, Equity, Accountability, and Leadership) Committee Member, 2019-2021
Selected Publications
Chung-Sherman, M. (2024). Transracial Adoption and Colonialism, as Collective Narcissism in the Counseling Room. Studies in Social Justice. In peer review
Kim, J.R. & Chung-Sherman, M. (2024). Adoption Critiques. Encyclopedia of Social Work. University Press. In peer-review.
Friedlander, F. & Chung-Sherman, M. (2017). The Voice of the Adoptee. In Buckwalter, K. D., & Reed, D. (Eds.), Attachment theory in action: Building connections between children and parents. Rowman & Littlefield.
Community Involvement
Institute of Adoption and Trauma, LLC., Co-Founder, Dallas, Texas, 2021 to current
I AM Adoptee, NYC, NY, Contributing Author, and Mental Health Consultant, 2019-2022
Agape Outreach, Refugee Mental Health PRN provider, 2019
Texas Medical Reserves, Mental Health, September 2017 to 2019
Red Cross, Disaster Mental Health Volunteer, August 2017