Jessie André, LCSW-S, MEd, PhD

Assistant Professor of Social Work
Online Faculty
jandre@ollusa.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Areas of Expertise

• Bicultural identity, immigration and sexual identity
• Sexual health disparities among first-generation individuals
• Mental health disparities and issues among first-generation individuals  
• Curriculum writing for comprehensive sexuality education
• Sexual culture and immigration  
• Sexual migration
• Sexuality-related issues in therapy, i.e., sexual trauma, pleasure, identity
• Generational trauma and sexual violence
• Migration and sexual violence

Teaching Philosophy

My philosophy of teaching is to create an environment that allows for supervised exploration grounded in empowerment. The most significant learning for students occurs in situations that are both meaningful and realistic. I use a collaborative learning and teaching approach in the classroom that brings to life the social work theories and practice skills. Modeling community practice skills and realistic, I aim to create a classroom environment that builds upon existing student knowledge, experiences, and intersecting social identities to support and challenge students to push their learning edges, fostering the development of critical thinking and concrete practice skills. Although I specialize in social work micro practice, I feel strongly that students must be capable of bridging their micro, mezzo, and macro skills to use within and across various social contexts. Learning, practicing, and reflecting upon these skills in the classroom frame my social work pedagogy and lie at the heart of social justice education and the social work profession.

In order to prepare students for engaging with communities and clients with varying cultural, religious, and ethnic backgrounds; it is imperative that students be able to critically evaluate their worldview. Students must be able to understand how power differential, such as occurs in academic and practice settings, facilitates the occurrence of discrimination and disparities that individuals in minority communities experience. In order to help students engage difficult questions and situations, that often involves intersecting issues of power, privilege, oppression, and social justice, I work with students to develop evolving classroom guidelines and tools to help us engage in difficult conversations like this both inside and outside the classroom.

Outside Interests

I enjoy travelling, discovering new places, cultures, cuisines and collecting post cards from these travels. The field of social work is stressful, consistent practice of yoga, throwing pots and knitting are my preferred avenues of relaxation and self-care.