Rate My Professor Sandy Leotti

Sandra Leotti is an Associate Professor and Interim MSW Program Director in the Division of Social Work at the University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in Social Work and Social Research from Portland State University in 2019, her M.S.W. from the University of Montana in 2006, and her B.A. from Prescott College in 2002. With over a decade of direct practice experience, Leotti served as a therapist and clinical case manager at Chrysalis School in Eureka, Montana, in 2010; case manager and family service coordinator at Families Together in Asheville, North Carolina, from 2006 to 2010; and youth development trainer with the National Coalition Building Institute in Missoula, Montana, from 2005 to 2006. Her academic appointments include senior research assistant and instructor at Portland State University from 2013 to 2019, adjunct instructor at Pacific University from 2016 to 2017, and joining the University of Wyoming as Assistant Professor in 2019, with promotion to Associate Professor in 2024.

Leotti's research emphasizes social justice through critical and feminist theories in social work education, research, and practice, focusing on social work's role in systems of injustice, the carceral state, criminalization, gender, disability, and community-based non-punitive approaches to harm. Key publications include "Failed Mothers, Risky Children: Carceral Protectionism and the Social Work Gaze" (Social Service Review, 2023, with Jennifer Muthanna and Ben Anderson-Nathe); "The Discursive Construction of Risk: Social Work Knowledge Production and Criminalized Women" (Social Service Review, 2020); "Social Work with Criminalized Women: Governance or Resistance in the Carceral State?" (Affilia, 2021); "Child Welfare and Social Work Education: From a Pedagogy of Oppression to a Pedagogy of Resistance" (Advances in Social Work, 2023); and "Mapping the Landscape of Trauma-Informed Care in Social Work: A Critical Scoping Review" (Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, in press). She has received the Feminist Manuscript Award from the Council on Social Work Education (2023), Presidential Scholarly Award for Early Career Faculty from the University of Wyoming (2023), New Investigator Award from the College of Health Sciences (2022), Frank R. Breul Memorial Prize from the University of Chicago (2021), and College of Health Sciences Division of Social Work Research Award (2024). Leotti has secured grants for projects including the Wyoming Disability Project on guardianship policies and practices (2023-2024) and open educational resources for rural social work education. She presents at conferences such as the Council on Social Work Education and Society for Social Work and Research.