Dr. Power joined the Department of Social Work faculty in 2017. An Iowa native, he studied at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine earning a degree in Anthropology with a minor in Economics. As part of his undergraduate education, Dr. Power lived and studied in Botswana. Upon completing his undergraduate degree, he worked for three years as a psychiatric technician at a Des Moines hospital on the adult, adolescent, and children’s units.

Dr. Power then earned his MSW from the University of Iowa-Des Moines, in the Family-Centered Practice concentration. He completed his advanced placement at Des Moines University in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology. He has held an APSW license in Wisconsin since 2017.

Dr. Power earned his Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Iowa, completing coursework in social work, sociology, psychology, and education. He is trained as a Gerontologist and holds an Aging Studies Certificate. After graduation, Dr. Power relocated to a rural Iowa community. For eight years, he worked as a hospice social worker where he had the opportunity to work with hundreds of clients and families.

Dr. Power completed his dissertation entitled: Adult children with Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder: Family Case Studies in Social Support (2009). He has authored as well as co-authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and presented at state and national conferences.

During his time at UWO, Dr. Power has conducted several qualitative research studies, including Hospice Social Workers: The Personal Death Experience and Rural, Older Funeral Directors: Capturing Lived Experience through Oral Histories.  His research and teaching interests include end-of-life care, death, dying and bereavement, gerontology, qualitative research, healthcare, medical ethics, mental health advocacy and policy.

He was active at the affiliate level as Vice President of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) of South-Central Iowa, as well as a Director-at-Large and Vice President of NAMI Iowa. He serves on several departmental and University committees. He is an active member in The Rotary Club of Oshkosh. Dr. Power belongs to NASW-WI, NAMI-WI, and NAMI-IA.

Colleen is an alumni of the BSW program here at UW Oshkosh.  She received her MSW from UW- Milwaukee. Colleen began teaching as an ad hoc faculty in fall 2005.

Colleen joined the Social Work department full time in spring 2008 as an academic instructional staff member. Colleen has taught multiple courses in the BSW program, including:  Intro to Social Work, Transitions in the Family Life Cycle, Interpersonal Skills, Generalist Practice, Generalist Practice Interviewing Lab, Human Behavior and the Social Environment, Applied Generalist Practice Field I and II. She has also taught Field Seminar in the MSW program. In addition to teaching responsibilities, Colleen is also the Social Work program advisor, BSW Program Coordinator, as well as part of the BSW Admissions Committee, and Field Committee.

Colleen has been in social work practice in the Fox Valley for over 20 years.   Throughout her career, Colleen has also provided supervision to both BSW and MSW Field students. Her area of interests include: oncology, palliative care and hospice social work.

Audra Eggum is honored to work with students and faculty as an academic instructor in the Social Work Department. Audra received her BSW from the University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh, and her MSW from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has worked in various social work roles that include crisis and trauma intervention, in-home therapy, and outpatient mental health.

Audra currently works as an outpatient mental health provider that specializes in children and families, LGBTQ advocacy, and trauma recovery. She has a personal and professional interest in holistic medicine and intervention.

Dr. Hudson joined the faculty in 2015 and teaches in both the BSW and MSW programs, primarily in the areas of theory and practice. His primary interests are the implications of the natural environment for social work, spirituality and social work, ethics, and qualitative research.

Dr. Hudson received his BSW and MSW degrees at St. Louis University in the family concentration; a practice centered program steeped in the social work traditions of family systems theory and the person-in environment perspective.

He took his PhD at the University of Kansas, School of Social Welfare in August of 2014, where the Strengths Perspective for
social work was born. During his time at KU he taught ten semesters at both the undergraduate and master’s levels in two core areas of the curriculum, practice and human behavior in the social environment and the natural environment to social work’s
professional domain.

Dr. Hudson’s dissertation, The Natural Environment in Social Work Education, examines how social work educators are integrating issues of the natural environment into their teaching in the United States. Dr. Hudson’s role as a teacher is to use content to teach awareness and reflection and analysis leading to critical thinking. Further, how to integrate theory in practice and to help students transition from an education system that posits them as receptacles for information, to one in which they are expected to take a larger role in their education, actively seeking-out knowledge and understanding.