Department of Social Work

Education:

• BSW, Ohio State University
• MSSW, Health Policy, Case Western Reserve University
• Ed.D, Doctorate in Education Leadership with Concentration in Expressive Arts Leadership, Education, and Inquiry, Appalachian State University 

Specialities:

• Field Education
• Expressive Arts
• Integration of Creativity, Sacredness, and Social/Environmental Justice

Biography: Heather Thorp, Ed.D, MSW, LCSW, REAT currently serves as the BSW and MSW Field Director.  Dr. Thorp began working at Appalachian State University in 2006 as a Project Manager for the Methamphetamine Treatment Initiative. She also taught in the BSW and MSW programs during this time. In 2009, Dr. Thorp began her position as the Field Director.

In 2022 Dr. Thorp completed her doctorate in Educational Leadership. Her dissertation titled; Ongoing Curiosities in Post -Formal Education: Making Kin, Becoming Kind, and Becoming Kin(d) with/in a Story Family Sojourn was a post qualitative expressive arts based inquiry into the integration of creativity, sacredness, and social and environmental justice. She, along with Dr. Levy, have created the Arts and Health Collaborative in the Beaver College of Health Sciences. She is the caretaker of a canvas labyrinth which she has used in the Interprofessional Clinic, a continuing education opportunity for Field Instructors and with community groups.

When she is not working she enjoys making handmade coptic stitch journals, creative writing, cooking, traveling, creating art and writing with an expressive arts writing group, leading labyrinth walks, and walking in the Appalachian Mountains, and spending time with her partner Robin and their two dogs. They have recently welcomed their first grandchild!

Curriculum Vitae: View