Our Team

Linda Helm, MSW, PhD, ACSW, LISW-S is the Assistant State Director of the University Partnership Program (UPP) for Ohio’s University Consortium for Child and Adult Services (OUCCAS). She has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Miami University, a Master of Social Work from the University of Cincinnati, and a Ph.D. in Social Work from The Ohio State University (OSU). She served as the OSU UPP Campus Coordinator, teaching Child Welfare I and II (CORE embedded) for 19 years. She continues to teach for OSU.

Since beginning her social work practice in mental health and child welfare settings in 1979, she has worked with children and families in the child welfare system and provided mental health services and family sexual abuse treatment for a PCSAO. She has provided both community and hospital/ER mental health services. She maintained a private practice for ten years. Her practice, research, and teaching experience are in child abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, trauma, social work practice skills, ethics, and social work supervision. She co-wrote and revised the NASW Supervision Designation nine-hour course and has trained the content for NASW since 2010. She has written and taught multiple university courses and workshops on child welfare, trauma, supervision, ethics, social work practice skills, and developing healthy organizational culture.

Currently, she supervises UPP MSW graduates in an LISW training group. She worked on the CAPMIS Evaluation and the Citizen Review Panel (CRP) Redesign for Ohio. She was a national CRP, Mental Health, and Forensic Center board member and NASW OH Delegate, each for three years. She is passionate about the preparation of social workers entering the child welfare profession, child welfare workforce development, and the promotion of healthy organizational cultures and climates in work settings.  Much of the joy she experiences in her profession comes from working cooperatively with and learning from many of her fellow professionals.