Saint Martin's faculty member joins SafePlace board

Jan. 18, 2006

Lacey, Wash. – Saint Martin’s University faculty member Ekaterina “Katia” Shkurkin, associate professor of community services/sociology, has been named to a three-year term on the SafePlace board of directors.

SafePlace, an advocacy agency and confidential emergency shelter for victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault, is in Thurston County. Shkurkin says she is excited to join the board of the group at this point, since a Jan. 26 groundbreaking will mark the beginning of a shelter expansion project that will enable the organization to double the number of people it can shelter.

Shkurkin, a Saint Martin’s faculty member since 1999, has almost 27 years of clinical social work experience. She is an expert in the areas of community development, dealing with domestic violence and child abuse treatment and prevention. She earned her doctorate in psychology in 2005 from California Coast University, Santa Ana. In 2004, she was chosen as a Fulbright Scholar at Riga, Latvia’s Attistiba Higher School of Social Work, where she taught undergraduate and graduate students. She completed her Master of Social Work degree at New York’s Columbia University and her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley.

For more information:

Assoc. Prof. Katia Shkurkin
Community services/sociology
(360) 438-4541
kshkurkin@stmartin.edu

Deanna Partlow
media relations coordinator
Office of Communication & Marketing
360-438-4541
dpartlow@stmartin.edu