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Marva Carroll grew up two hours from New Orleans, always captivated by the Big Easy’s beauty. When she returned there to volunteer in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, she couldn’t believe the destruction. “It was a real eye-opening experience.”

Coming from a deep South family-oriented tradition, Marva just naturally gravitated toward community in her social work focus. “Family and members of the community were always there willing to help each other,” she explains. “I think I was molded in that environment to become a social worker.”

Marva was immediately swept up in the family feeling of Buffalo and the diversity of the campus. Upon receiving her MSW degree, she set out for a position in Flagstaff, Arizona, working with the Navajo and Hopi Indian tribes. “You learn to work with different cultures in the School of Social Work, but to really do the work, you have to open up your mind and be accepting of their cultures and way of life,” she says. “I had really good teachers who began to open up my mind to the different ways of life.”

Marva Carroll, MSW ‘06