Jon Phillips was hired as a faculty member in the Department of Social Work in 2022. He was recently promoted to associate professor.
Why did you choose to work at UMD?
I got both my undergraduate (sociology, history) and master’s (social work) degrees at UMD. I moved away from Duluth for a while and lived in North Carolina while getting my PhD in social work. I chose to come back to Duluth and UMD because I love the outdoors, and both the city and school feel like the perfect size: small enough to feel community-oriented but big enough to have a wide range of services and resources.
What do you like most about your job?
Teaching social work is amazing because you are working directly with your future colleagues. The students that I’ve had in class over the past few years are working at agencies all over Minnesota and beyond as the practitioners, supervisors, and directors leading our profession.
What is your research or teaching focus?
My research falls into two buckets. One looks at how community-level characteristics impact people’s ability to access healthcare. This work stems from the person-in-environment perspective that we often use in social work to consider the influence of broader environmental contexts on individuals. The other bucket is developing and evaluating group-based interventions for people with mental illness who are involved in the criminal legal system.
Do you have any advice for students?
Create good habits around time management early on. For example, setting aside a few hours, several days per week, to finish a big assignment is much more efficient than having to pull an all-nighter. You won’t have anyone micro-managing your time, so being disciplined is the key to working “smarter not harder.”
What do you like to do in your free time?
Anything outdoors! Rock climbing, hiking, biking, camping, and sailing are some of my favorites!