We are proud of our alumni and are pleased to showcase their accomplishments in the "Alumni Spotlight". 
Alice Bergmann, LCSW, (2008), recipient of the Social Worker of the Year Award from New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital has been a model for outstanding work with patients, siblings, and families at MSCHONY for almost a decade. Her enthusiasm, lively spirit, and empathic character have been valued assets to her work providing support to brothers and sisters of patients in Charna’s Kids Club Sibling Program. Ms. Bergmann has created a truly unique support program for siblings, which provides a safe, therapeutic space while encouraging a fun, playful environment. She has created an environment that allows children to express themselves in extraordinary ways and is a beloved figure in the lives of the children and adolescents that have participated in the sibling program. Her consistent dedication to providing the utmost care and support to families is evidenced in the meaningful connections that she has made with families at NYP. Ms. Bergmann has worked hard to optimize the care for siblings, patients, and families through various projects and events.
About her educational experience in the School of Social Welfare, Ms. Bergmann had this to say: "I began my professional life in the theatre, and worked in that field for over 25 years. Through a variety of experiences as both an actor and on the theatre production side, I witnessed firsthand the power of words and story to empower an audience to see the way to a more hopeful future. Words were always my solace through many a travail - particularly when I was able to express them in poetic form, be it in the theatre or in my own journals. I then became curious about how the power of story could transform the life of an individual or a community, as it had for me. I was thus determined to find a place where my ideas could be channeled in a more direct and individualized way toward helping others to find their own empowering words; those words that made the utmost sense to them.
I decided to pursue a social work education at Stony Brook toward that end. Stony Brook challenged me to meet the world through the eyes and voices of my clients - be that client, a community, individual or group. The School of Social Welfare, in particular my professors, encouraged me to explore each and every "acorn" of an idea toward the uncovering of voices that might not have been heard before.
My policy professor and advisor, Carolyn Peabody, emboldened me by believing in my pursuit of theatre and the arts as tools for voicing oppression - in all of its forms. She opened the door to projects and experiences that gave me the chance to utilize story tools: whether it was in working with the Unkechaug Nation's young people in creating pictogram story circles, or utilizing a poetry piece to teach others about an autistic child's struggle to express his thoughts verbally to his peers.
Professor Peabody's encouragement, and the concurrent emphasis of the strengths perspective by the social work program, inspired a field project wherein I was able to work with female clients in recovery to write their own poetry. They were then able to voice their poetry in dramatic form, and to hear it voiced in performance for their own sober community. It was a seminal experience for them - and for myself - to hear their words aloud.
Were it not for these experiences, I daresay that I might not have believed in the power of my own voice to be of help to others. My heart is full when I think about how Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare accepted and nurtured the authentic voice of students such as myself; thus providing students with the tools to try to help others write their own story - perhaps to re-write their very own script -- to hear their own voice".
