Sharon "Lizzie" Bowland

Dr. Sharon (Lizzie) Bowland is the Director of the DSW Program and Associate Professor in the College of Social Work at UTK. She is a licensed clinical social worker and formerly specialized in work with women who have experienced interpersonal trauma (such as child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault). She has over 25 years of psychotherapy experience in community mental health and pastoral counseling settings. She also coordinates the Gerontology Certificate for the College of Social Work with a primary goal of developing new leaders in gerontology and mental health practice. She has just begun a collaboration to build a team of UTK gerontology researchers for developing research projects on health and well-being over the lifespan.  Dr. Bowland has been involved in gerontology research in several areas: 1) trauma-related mental health to develop and implement effective trauma-informed approaches for older persons, 2) interdisciplinary partnership with Dr. Xiaopeng Zhao in the College of Engineering to program humanoid robots to provide interventions with caregivers for persons with dementia, and 3) older LGBTQ+ persons in East Tennessee to increase their access to culturally competent healthcare in East Tennessee. She is an Executive Committee member of the Knox County Office on Aging and co-chair of the Aging Rainbow Coalition (ARC) serving older LGBTQ+ persons.