Helen E. Petracchi

Helen Petracchi earned her PhD in Social Welfare at the UW –Madison, where she also earned her MSSW. degree. Dr. Petracchi’s scholarly interests lie in improving the professional delivery of social services to vulnerable populations. To this end, she has focused on identifying the service needs of vulnerable populations and developing, delivering, and evaluating innovations in social work education to prepare social work students more effectively for practice. Dr. Petracchi’s commitment to social work education is evidenced by her competitive selection as a Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Scholar (2017–2018) and her work with the CSWE Commission on Accreditation (now Board of Accreditation) where she served first as a site visitor (beginning 2009), then a Commissioner (2017-2023) and now continues as a Commissioner Site Visitor to programs in the process of initial accreditation. Dr. Petracchi was named as a member of the CSWE Commission on Educational Policy (2023-2026) as well as recently selected to be a member of the CSWE Practice Doctorate Review Committee (PDRC) (2026–2029). Dr. Petracchi has been a recipient of the University of Pittsburgh Employee Diversity Recognition Award for which she was nominated by students for having created a diverse and inclusive space for their professional development and learning. Dr. Petracchi’s work has been published in the Journal of Social Work Education, the Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, the Journal of Teaching in Social Work, The Journal of Community Practice, Research on Social Work Practice, The Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, as well as Professional Development: The International Journal of Continuing Social Work Education, The Journal of the Global Community, Families in Society, Children and Youth Services Review, The Journal of Computers in Human Services, the Journal of Technology in Human Services, Journal of Continuing Social Work Education, and the Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment.

Daley, M. R. & Petracchi, H. E. (2025). Reassessing BSW Field Education: Persistent and Emerging Issues Three Years After EPAS 2022. Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, 30(2). pp. 167-177. DOI: Kim, S., Linardi, S., & Petracchi, H. E. (In Press). Teaching note: Preparing social work students to work with public interest technology: An interdisciplinary effort. Journal of Social Work Education. Jacobson Lopez, D., Yuan, Y., Petracchi, H.E., Joseph, A., Hawk, M. (2024). Social Work Faculty Perceptions on the Need for Inclusive LGBTQIA+ Policies in Schools of Social Work. Sexuality Research and Social Policy. DOI: Woo, J., Shook, J., Goodkind, S., Ballentine, K., Engel, R.J., Kim, S., Petracchi, H.E. (2022). Do wage increases help? Wage increases and material hardships among low-wage hosp