Maura Quigley
Maura Quigley is an MSW student in her third and final year at WCU. Guided by her
passion for social justice and economic equality, Maura transferred from the Master
of Counseling Education Program into the MSW program at WCU after her first semester
as a graduate student.
Throughout her time at West Chester, she has been a graduate assistant for the Student Success Program, the Social Work Department, and the Department of Special Education. She has also been a Research Assistant for the Women’s Rugby Athletic Trainer, completing mental health screenings for student athletes on campus. She has worked with several professors and supported undergraduate WCU students in their academic journeys in many ways throughout each of these roles. These experiences have provided her with the opportunity to improve her macro skills in areas such as event planning, grant writing, advocacy, and research. Maura hopes to use these skills to improve client services in her career post-graduation.
Maura completed her first internship at CHOP, where she conducted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-focused sessions with students with Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome (AMPS) that focused primarily on anxiety, depression, and stress management and also coordinated with their schools and families. She is now completing her second internship at the Coatesville VAMC, providing outpatient therapy to veterans.
Maura is a passionate advocate for sex positivity and against sexual assault and has in interest in improving supports for university students who are struggling with mental health and trauma, including sexual assault. While at WCU she and a fellow MSW student, Julia Hopkins, conducted an independent research project “Exploring Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Consent and Sexual Assault” under the supervision of Undergraduate Social Work professor Dr. Travis Ingersoll. Maura and Julia continued their drive to promote sex positivity and bring to light WCU students’ experiences and feelings around sex and sexual assault in the hopes of informing and improving student services, and received a University Forum Grant to continue their work on gender equality, healthy relationships, and sexual health by hosting an event for students on campus that focused on consent and sex positivity in April 2018. Maura and Julia later presented their research findings at the PASSHE Women’s Consortium Conference in October 2018 with the funding support of the Graduate Dean Grant Award. This work has also received a first place WCU Student Research and Creative Activity Award in March of 2019, after which they presented their results on campus.
Maura is currently working with Dr. Chen and Dr. O’Neal on an university-community collaboration project that targets on workforce development for social service organizations and MSW students in the area of macro practice. This is funded by the PASSHE Faculty Professional Development Council grant. Together with Drs. Chen and O’Neal, Maura will present her experience working on the grant at the 2020 SoTLA conference at WCU.
Maura is also a member pf Phi Alpha, the Graduate Social Work honor society, and an HRSA Stipend recipient. This stipend has allowed Maura to take an additional class on Integrated Care and attend trainings related to critical healthcare needs across the country, such as serving diverse clients and fighting against the opioid crisis. These classes and trainings have had a great impact on her social work skills and her ability to serve clients at both her current internship at the VA and most certainly in her future career after WCU.