Faculty
Gauri Rai
Associate Professor of Social Work
Dr. Rai is an associate professor of social work and has been a faculty member of Mary Baldwin College since 2004. He has a BA and MAS from Kashi Vidyapith University, Varansai, India, an MSW from St. Louis University, a PhD in Social Work from Rutgers University, and an LISW (licensed independent social worker) from Ohio Licensing Board of Counselors and Social Workers.
He is the recipient of a graduate fellowship from St. Louis City hospitals and clinics, a doctoral fellowship from National Institute of Mental Health, and a training grant in Small System Management to MSW students for three years. His social work practice experience includes service to military families, American Red Cross; long term illness committee, medical social work, child welfare, and mental health.
Dr. Rai’s research interests include the pattern of growth and development in community organizations and institutions, impact of parenting on personality development of pre-adolescent and adolescent children, alcoholism in women, program evaluation of mental health agencies, bureaucratic inflexibility in public child welfare system, and international social welfare education in the United States. Currently, he is working on a research project titled “Organizational determinants of resident satisfaction in long term care facilities.” His recent professional presentations include: Resident satisfaction in long term care facilities (in the conference of Southern Gerontological Society, Greensboro, North Carolina) and Burnout among a staff of long term care facilities (in the conference of Gerontological Society of America, San Francisco, California.) Dr. Rai has published in Social Service Review, Administration in Social Work, and International Social Work.
Dr. Rai is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, Council on Social Work Education, and the International Federation of Social Workers and Inter-University Consortium for International Development. He has also been serving as a board member of United Way of Augusta County, Staunton, and Waynesboro, Virginia for the last three years. He is a proud father of five daughters.
Mary Clay Thomas
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Mary Clay is an assistant professor of social work who relocated to Staunton after spending ten years in Burlington, Vermont. A graduate of Saint Timothy’s School, an all female high school in Stevenson, Maryland, Mary Clay went on to earn her BA from the University of Montana in English and Psychology and an MSW from the University of Vermont where she was a recipient of the Vermont Title-IVE Scholarship.
Before coming to Mary Baldwin, Mary Clay taught social work courses, supervised field work, and advised the social work club at Champlain College. She practiced as a child protection social worker, school social worker, and with elders while living in Vermont.
Travel and international social work are among Mary Clay’s many interests. Most recently, she traveled to El Progreso, Honduras to launch Mary Baldwin’s first International Social Work Field Placement. Please read http://oyehonduras.blogspot.com/ to learn more about our student’s experience in Honduras!
Mary Clay enjoys spending time with her husband Matt and two daughters. She recently finished her first half-marathon!
May Guenin is an adjunct faculty member teaching in the Adult Degree Program. She earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Virginia and an MSW from Case Western Reserve University.
Ms. Guenin’s practice experience includes social services, inpatient psychiatric care, directing a day treatment program, directing an out-patient clinic, private practice and being a field instructor in social work. She has experience with children, adolescents and adults. She has been teaching sociology and social work in ADP since 1998.
Currently Ms. Guenin teaches Aging, Human Behavior and the Social Environment I and II, Social Work Practice I and II, and field instruction.
Ms. Guenin has three children, two grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and two cats. She is interested in other cultures and often has foreign graduate students from the University of Virginia living in her home.
Contributing Faculty
Kathy McCleaf, associate professor of Health and Studies of Gender and Sexuality
Bob Robinson, ADP academic advisor at MBC/BRCC and adjunct instructor of sociology
Daniel Stuhlsatz, associate professor of sociology
Carey Usher, assistant professor of sociology
John Wells, professor of sociology