Assistant Professor (PhD, MSW & BSW)

St. John's College, J-4012

Tel: (709) 864-8381
Email:  smcconne@mun.ca

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Dr. Sheri M. McConnell is enjoying a three-year regular term appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor. (Her permanent position is Field Education Coordinator.) Dr. McConnell teaches social work practice courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, provides field instruction, and supervises graduate student research. She is passionate about and dedicated to Memorial University’s partnership with Nunavut Arctic College in offering the BSW, Nunavut cohort program, and serves as the team lead on the NAC-SSW BSW Steering Committee.  

Dr. McConnell is a co-investigator with Transforming the Field Education Landscape (TFEL), a five-year SSHRC funded project led by Dr. Julie Drolet. She also is a co-investigator on the Canadian team, led by Dr. Susan Cadell, of an international project exploring the impact of COVID-19 on social workers in health care.

Dr. McConnell is a Commissioner on the CASWE-ACFTS Commission on Accreditation, and led the development and implementation of the CASWE-ACFTS Online Field Instructor’s Course. An active volunteer in community-based organizations, she passionately supports Camp Eclipse (a leadership retreat for 2SLGBTQ+ youth and their allies).

Dr. McConnell has lived on Treaty 4 (Regina, SK) and Treaty 6 (Saskatoon, SK) lands, and on traditional Algonquin (Ottawa, ON) and Beothuk (St. John's, NL) lands. As a registered social worker and a feminist, her practice is centred in respectful relationships, equity and social justice, decolonization and reconciliation, personal and community healing and well-being, and social action and social change. Dr. McConnell possesses a range of social work and human services experience in advocacy, clinical, urban and rural community development, consulting and evaluation, and group work. She has worked in government, health authorities, and the community, primarily with women, Indigenous peoples, and 2SLGBTQ+ people around their experiences with child sexual abuse, the criminal justice system, substance use, and other forms of personal and systemic oppression. At the School of Social Work, she has worked as a researcher with the Hidden Hurt Project (a national research project exploring child abuse prevention and disclosure), the Coordinator of MSW Field and Student Services and Continuing Education, and a Field Education Coordinator (ASM-FEC).

Dr. McConnell completed a PhD in social work (Memorial University, 2015), an MSW (Memorial University, 2002), a BSW (University of Regina, 1998), a Certificate in Continuing Education: Alcohol & Chemical Dependency Studies (University of Regina, 1992), and a BA in Sociology (Carleton University, 1989). She is certified in Psychodramatic Bodywork and Psychodrama/Sociometry.

Dr. McConnell’s research interests include field and social work education; decolonization, reconciliation, and Indigenization; gender and sexual diversity; and preventing, disclosing, and ending violence and abuse. Dr. McConnell has presented at a variety of local, national, and international conferences and has authored peer reviewed, scholarly, and other articles; book chapters; program manuals; and evaluation reports.

Selected Publications:

McConnell, S.M., Noble, M., Hanley, J., Finley-Roy, V., & Drolet, J. (2022 - in press). Integrating practice research into social work field education.  Journal of Teaching in Social Work. 

McConnell, S. M. (2018). For Settlers Who Say That They Support Decolonization... But Wish It Weren't So Hard. 

McConnell, S.M. (2016). Final Report on the Provincial and Regional Meetings of CASWE-ACFTS Field Education Coordinators and Directors and Recommendations for the Design of a National Online Field Instructors Course. Ottawa, ON: CASWE-ACFTS. 

Swan, T. A. and McConnell, S. M. (2015). Transformative engagement in LGBTQ student/field instructor relationships. In B. J. O'Neill, T. A. Swan, and N. J. Mulé (Eds), LGBTQ People and Social Work: Intersectional Perpsectives. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars Press.

McConnell, S. M. (2014). What happens after children tell? A qualitative analysis of narratives of women who as children disclosed intra-familial sexual abuse (Doctoral dissertation). Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Ungar, M., Barter, K., McConnell, S. M., Tutty, L. M. & Fairholm, J. (2009). Patterns of disclosure among youth. Qualitative Social Work, 8(3), 341-356.

Ungar, M., Tutty, L. M., McConnell, S. M., Barter, K., & Fairholm, J. (2009). What Canadian youth tell us about disclosing abuse. Child Abuse and Neglect, 33(10), 699-708.