Beth Okantey

Beth Okantey is a doctoral student at Florida State University’s College of Social Work and a research assistant with the Center of Population Sciences for Health Equity. Beth has contributed to various projects on aging and cognitive decline in populations facing significant health challenges. She assisted in survey collection and qualitative interviews focusing on the safety risks of aging with HIV and aging and cognitive decline among aging Latinos, Asians, and Black Americans. She also completed a systematic review on how students gain cultural awareness in social work education. Beth’s research interests include African immigration and its impact on mental health.

With over 28 years of practical social work experience, Beth has worked with various populations, including 16 years of international work, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. She developed a BSW/MSW field placement program in Ghana, West Africa, supervising 90 students from 18 universities. Beth has also spent 13 years teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level, both online and in the classroom, for various institutions. Currently, she teaches practice courses based on group work and engaging with communities and organizations at the BSW level at Florida State University.