Dr. Shelly Birnie Lefcovitch

Biography

Shelly Birnie-Lefcovitch is an Honorary Research Professor at the School of Social Work at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She completed her PhD with distinction at Wilfrid Laurier University in 1997 and previously earned her MSW from McGill University in 1971 and her BA from Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) in 1969. Birnie-Lefcovitch joined the faculty at Memorial University in 1998, having previously served as Co-Director of the Office of Year Studies at the University of Guelph. She was the Director of the School of Social Work at Memorial from 2002 to 2009. Her scholarly interests focus on community mental health, particularly emphasizing primary prevention and informal social support. She is particularly dedicated to investigating strategies that promote effective adaptation to normative life transitions. Birnie-Lefcovitch has been involved in national research teams conducting SSHRC-funded studies that examine student adjustment during the transition from high school to university, as well as rural-urban differences in this transition. She has also taught in the BSW, MSW, and PhD programs, supervised graduate student research, and served as a thesis examiner for students in Social Work and related disciplines.

Research Interests

Experience