School of Social Work

Amanda Long, M.S.W, is the coordinator of Community Engaged Child and Family Well-Being Initiatives. She partners with the administrator for CECFWI to coordinate and expand the Title IV-E Child Welfare Stipend Program at VCU, as well as support the Consortium for Resource, Adoptive, and Foster Family Training grant. She is also a collaborator on the NIH grant Equipping Social Workers on the Front Line: The Child Welfare and Addiction Specialist Fellowship Program.

She is an M.S.W. graduate from VCU’s advanced standing format with a concentration in administration, planning and policy practice. Since graduating in 2011, she has served as a field instructor for both B.S.W. and M.S.W. students in a variety of settings around Richmond. Prior to finding her way back to VCU School of Social Work, Amanda worked at the state office of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI Virginia), where she developed and piloted programming for youth and young adults with systems experience across the state. She continues to volunteer as a presenter for Ending the Silence, an evidence-based workshop designed for middle and high school students.

More recently, Amanda served as the program manager for the Cameron K. Gallagher Mental Health Resource Center at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, where she supported a team of family navigators who assisted caregivers in navigating the mental health system. Amanda considers herself a lifelong learner and is a proud graduate and scholarship recipient of the Emerging Nonprofit Leaders Program through the Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond. Some other areas of interest and commitment include disAbility rights and environmental preservation. She is also a member of the Community Engagement Impact Learning Collaborative, a working group dedicated to assessing best practices related to the impact and evaluation of community engagement efforts at VCU.

Areas of expertise

• Youth and Family Engagement
• Recovery, Resilience and Trauma
• Mental Health Education and Advocacy
• Peer Support and Utilizing Lived Experience

Education and credentials

M.S.W., Virginia Commonwealth University
B.S.W., Virginia Commonwealth University