The Lawanna Renee Barron Endowed Scholarships are awarded to MSW students with demonstrated interest, or experience, in working in rural settings and/or health and mental health in African American communities. The 2025-2026 recipients are:
Aaliyah Gates, University of Alabama
Gates, from Bruce, Miss., is a first-generation college graduate and MSW student at the University of Alabama. She earned a BA in psychology with a minor in sociology from the University of Mississippi, graduating cum laude and completing her studies through the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Her senior honors thesis, “Mental Health Care Pathways for African American Women in the Mississippi Delta,” led her to conduct research in under-resourced communities and to present at Harvard University as a Harvard Public Health Scholar. Gates’ professional interests center on reducing mental health stigma and increasing access to culturally responsive care in underserved African American populations. Her first-year practicum placement was with the S.M.A.R.T. Clinics in Pickens County, Ala., where she supported children’s behavioral health services in a rural setting. This fall, she will begin her second-year MSW internship in Selma, Ala. Gates aspires to become an LCSW and open her own mental health practice focused on healing and advocacy for marginalized communities.