A Night to Highlight Ending Violence
A forum hosted by the Rutgers School of Social Work’s Center for Research on Ending Violence recognized a gift in support of scholarships and honored a Rutgers alumna.
Sandra Lanman is gratified that her daughter Sheryl’s memory lives on through a special fund created at the Rutgers School of Social Work in support of the efforts of the Center for Research on Ending Violence.
“I know that Sheryl would be incredibly grateful to know her short life could have such a positive impact,” she told nearly 100 people gathered at the forum “Breaking Cycles, Building Futures: Advancing Research, Education, and Action to End Violence” held in Winants Hall at Rutgers–New Brunswick on April 22.
The event celebrated the center’s almost 20 years of work leading multidisciplinary efforts to eliminate violence and systemic power imbalances through research, education, and community engagement.
Lanman said that since childhood, her daughter had aspired to help others. After earning two degrees from Rutgers—a bachelor’s in psychology in 2003 and a master’s degree in social work in 2010— her daughter worked at Womanspace (now Younity), a nonprofit agency in Mercer County serving victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. In 2015, breast cancer took Sheryl Lanman Nichols’ life at the age of 34.
At the event, her mother cited a “beautiful thank you note” she received from Rutgers School of Social Work doctoral student Maria Guevara Carpio SEBS’21, whose research at the center is being partially supported by the memorial fund.
Guevara Carpio wrote that she is working on a study to learn more about the victimization rates among Latinas, an area for which data is lacking. “Your donation made this possible,” she wrote to Lanman. “I’m thankful for the opportunity to work on something I’m passionate about and with a community I care about deeply.”
Lanman, a graduate of Douglass College and the Rutgers School of Communication and Information who formerly worked in communications and marketing for Rutgers, said she shared the note on her Facebook page. “It’s so important that people know how their donations are being used,” she said. “I think that’s a huge aspect of giving. I welcome these communications because I can report back to our donors how they have made a difference.”
A second fund started by Lanman and friends of her late daughter supports two annual awards to master’s degree students at the School of Social Work doing fieldwork in the area of interpersonal violence.
The night also included an honor for Rutgers alumna Mariam Merced, director of community health promotion programs for the RWJ Barnabas Health System–Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, who received the center’s inaugural Community Champion Award for her longtime service to the community. Merced holds a master of arts in labor studies from Rutgers–New Brunswick.
The event raised awareness of the impactful work being led by the center and its far-reaching influence within the Rutgers community and beyond. Guests had the chance to learn about student and faculty research and gather for networking opportunities across academia, policy, and practice.
The center’s director, Professor Sarah McMahon, said the evening was inspirational. “It was a privilege to be in the room with such an incredible group of people dedicated to preventing and responding to violence and we are grateful to all who attended,” she said. “We are at a critical juncture in time for this work, and it was inspiring to think together about the ways we can do this collectively.”
Associate Professor Chiara Sabina, the center’s associate director, said, “There was a vibrant energy in the room which included so many of our constituent groups—alumni, community partners, staff, students, the Office of Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance, friends of Rutgers, and faculty. The work toward ending all forms of violence united us all.”
Additional speakers included Rutgers School of Social Work Dean and Distinguished Professor George Leibowitz; Rebecca Vazquez, director of the Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance at Rutgers–New Brunswick; and Amritha Sridhar, SSW’22, ‘23, a child and family therapist at EveryMind.
“As an alum, it was an honor to be in a room with those who have dedicated their lives to ending violence,” Sridhar said. “It reinforces the power of community and collective action. This shared commitment strengthens our mission to break the cycles of violence and create lasting change.”
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