Crystal Aschenbrener, DSW, MSW, APSW

Social Work

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

• Intervention programs for Native American youth
• Women's issues
• Service learning
• Undergraduate research
• Domestic travel
• Macro social work practice

BIOGRAPHY

Crystal Aschenbrener is the special assistant to the dean of Professional and Graduate Studies. She is also an associate professor in the social work program at Alverno College, which she helped to develop. The effort involved working with national social work accreditation requirements and state licensure processes, with which she has become quite familiar. She began teaching at Alverno in 2017, and teaches courses including human behavior and the social environment, social work practice courses, family and society, and youth mentoring intervention. Her primary goal is to provide a holistic curriculum and program for students so they can successfully meet the social justice needs of southeastern Wisconsin and beyond.

Aschenbrener also launched a substance abuse counseling program at Alverno, and is currently working on developing a Master of Social Work program. She launched and oversees several college committees including the Articulation Agreement Sub-Committee and the Social Work Advisory Board. She also started and led the Substance Abuse Counseling Task Force Committee; the Recruitment, Outreach and Leadership Committee; the Positivity Committee; the Social Media and Leadership Committee; and the Annual Social Work Field Trip Committee. She also serves on the college's faculty senate and Transfer Task Force Committee. She was awarded the “2020 Advisor of the Year” by the Student Affairs Leadership Committee.

Prior to teaching, Aschenbrener had 12 years of social work field experience. A licensed social worker with 17 years of university teaching and administrative experience, Aschenbrener is the program coordinator and principal researcher of the Today & Beyond Mentoring Intervention Program. The program introduces college students to tribal culture, traditions and strengths, as well as the historical trauma and social problems facing Native Americans. Each year she and her students travel to a tribal school to work with junior high students, helping motivate them for high school, college and beyond. Her field experience includes work with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities.

Aschenbrener earned her Bachelor of Social Work from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion. She earned her Master of Social Work from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, and her Doctor of Social Work from Aurora University in Aurora, Ill. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers at both the state and national levels, and the Council on Social Work Education Association at the national level. Aschenbrener is also a member of the Diversity Committee for the National Association of Social Workers and the research board of the National Mentoring Resource Center with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Annually, she presents on various topics at the campus, state and national levels. She has repeatedly published her research in peer-reviewed journals, population reviews, textbooks chapters, blogs and websites.