Camille R. Quinn

Recipient of the 2023 Milestone Achievement Award

During her time as a student at the Crown Family School, Chicago native Camille R. Quinn, AM ’98, PhD, recipient of the 2023 Milestone Achievement Award, was greatly respected as an exemplary and high-achieving student. Today, her nominator says, Camille’s tenacity and ambition continue to inspire and “make our alumni base proud.”

As a student, Camille was a prominent leader and scholar, serving as vice president of the student government and president of the African American Student Association. She was named a Chicago Urban Schweitzer Fellow and also won President Obama’s Award for Community Service.

Rather than shying away from a challenge or a difficult person or situation, Camille “gravitates to them simply because she wants to make them better.” Somehow, her nominator says, “she always makes time to assist and support others, including family, friends, colleagues, students, and patients.”

Now, as an associate professor in Community Engagement Research at the School of Social Work, Center for Equitable Family & Community Well-being at the University of Michigan, Camille’s scholarship continues to reflect her ability to tackle tough topics to help achieve greater equity and social justice. Her scholarship demonstrates her continuing interest in and commitment to community, the values of the social work profession, and the need to support vulnerable populations.

With her background in criminal justice and public health, along with her expertise in social service administration and health administration and policy, Camille has led efforts in examining the health equity of African American adolescents and young adults at the intersections of race, gender, health, crime and system involvement. She currently serves as the PI of a National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities Loan Repayment award focused on mental health disparities of Black girls who are involved with the youth punishment system, and a PI of a MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge, which seeks to increase criminal justice reform at the local level.

Building on Camille’s broad experience as a licensed clinical social worker, she is focused on identifying and examining the needs of Black girls and young women involved in the youth punishment system to help create and advance effective prevention and intervention approaches and deepen practice, policy, and research efforts.

Her body of work sets her apart from many. While these achievements are impressive, Camille’s nominator is even more amazed “by how much she contributes to others and her community, as well as by what she has and will continue to accomplish.”