Jordyn Hagar ’23PhD had already spent well over a decade in the social work field before pursuing her PhD in social work from Simmons University.
“The longer I’ve done social work, I’ve seen that there is a lot we can do one-on-one, but so much more in organizations, in local and state government, and other settings and systems that can make a difference for a lot of people,” says Hagar.
Earlier in her career, she was devoted to clinical work. She held different clinical roles while moving multiple times during her husband's medical training. Not knowing how long she would stay in their most recent location, and with two small children at the time, Hagar chose to piece together part-time work.
She taught a social work core requirement at a liberal arts college. “I liked working with students, teaching social work skills and concepts to future teachers, doctors, and business leaders,” says Hagar. “I taught them about diversity, culture, systems-level issues, how we all come to be who we are, our assumptions and biases, and how we interact with the world.”
She worked with a prevention coalition on mental health-oriented work, and also in curriculum development and continuing education. “I liked putting together different programs and going into the community and working with people. I was bringing concepts to people that I was trained in, but were new to them,” she says.
Once learning that she would remain in their location permanently, she began interviewing for clinical jobs again and realized that was no longer what she wanted to do. She "wanted to do something more macro."
Choosing the Social Work PhD at Simmons
“I liked the idea of staying full-time where I was teaching, and for that I needed a PhD,” she says. Still, she recognized that this was a big ask for a particular job. “I had to make sure that I was OK with doing the degree even if the teaching job didn’t work out, and I was. I wanted a more macro skillset, and I liked the idea of having more options.”
While the online program at Simmons was immediately appealing to Hagar from a logistical standpoint, it was when she met then-Professor Michelle Putnam that she learned more about the program and “fell in love.”
Hagar recalls: “Everything they were talking about fit with my experience. The program was looking for people with experience in the field, and by that time, I had 15 years of experience. They were talking about people picturing something more macro but unable to define it. [Hearing] about what we would learn, I was getting excited about it, thinking ‘I’m actually going to do this!’ It’s such a big commitment, but my brain had wanted something more for a while. I liked the idea of growing again in that way.”
Stronger Together Mental Health Awareness
In her community work, Hagar was tasked with developing and disseminating an educational program about mental health and reaching out to those in need. This would later come to fruition as Stronger Together Mental Health Awareness Training, which took root throughout her studies at Simmons.
“People were aware that members of the community were struggling with their mental health, but didn’t know what to do or how to help,” she says. “The goal was to help people understand what mental health is, how it shifts, and how to reach out to those they are concerned about. We need to offer skills for how to have the conversation and connect people with resources; not to diagnose or distinguish between different disorders, but to notice changes and initiate a conversation.”
However, the program that was offered at the time was “a really heavy lift for those taking it, and for those facilitating it. There was a big time and financial commitment, which made it hard to get people to want to run it or attend,” she says.
She partnered with the East Bay Regional Coalition (EBRC), an organization addressing substance use prevention and mental health promotion, to offer the content to people more efficiently.
“When I was developing the program, I did a targeted needs assessment: who will use it, and what they will use it for,” she says. Then she had to figure out the best way to present the material.
The result was “a shorter program,” says Hagar. “It’s a couple of hours, doesn’t take a huge time commitment, and is offered at no cost.” This flexibility has become one of the program’s biggest strengths; it can be offered over two lunch sessions, offered at the workplace, making it both “flexible and portable.”
How the PhD Supported Her Community Work
“One of the great things about getting the PhD and getting a full-time faculty position is that I have a much deeper and skilled understanding of intervention research,” says Hagar. “I have access to funding to develop the program, to adapt and disseminate at a larger scale.”
And she’s been able to train facilitators to take over the digital training process in different states. She also received funding to formalize the process, so that all of the training is housed in one online location.
“Healthcentric does eLearning [entirely online],” says Hagar. “They host all of the facilitator training, online programs, and translations. That was a really important step. All of the materials are linked on the website, and you can get access to the facilitator training and the online program and take it anywhere you want to go.”
Hagar is grateful that the Simmons PhD program allowed her to continue her devotion to this work.
“We were never expected to give up what we wanted to pursue in order to help faculty members pursue their research,” says Hagar. “That was such a benefit of attending the program at Simmons. Having watched people in PhD programs at other schools, I’ve seen people who have a vision and then have to put it on hold to become a research assistant. At Simmons, we were always encouraged to move forward with our own research.”
For Hagar, every single class offered an opportunity to apply what she was learning — such as policy, research design, analysis — to the work she cared about most.
“We brought our interests and research to design hypothetical studies in those classes, and you’re able to get a sense of how you can move your own ideas forward,” she says. “Then, when you get to the point of your dissertation, you have ideas of how to move that work forward.”
By the time she finished her PhD, “I had this project supported by regional data and community interest. And I had the skills that meant I could do something even bigger and more meaningful with this.” These skills were vital, Hagar says. “In the world of prevention work, programs need an evidence base of some kind in order to get approval from funders. Now I have that to share with anyone who wants to run the program.”
Finding Success in the Community
By 2025, Hagar’s adapted and scaled program received funding to support its dissemination, followed by more funding to make it accessible online.
“Initially, the idea was for people with some mental health awareness to be trained as facilitators, people working in prevention coalitions, or offering substance use prevention in communities,” she says. “Those are some of my most committed partners. They are not trained clinicians. The program is designed so that you don’t have to be a mental health professional to run it. Facilitators know how to connect people with more answers and resources.”
Working in the community, Hagar says, “I kept finding new partners and new friends along the way,” says Hagar. “Someone proposed being able to use a version of the program with youth. Another colleague got funding to make a population-specific adaptation for agricultural service providers. We created a process and format to adjust and adapt for specific populations. Recently, we received funding for translations. The online program is now available in Spanish and Portuguese.”
Now, Stronger Together is run in libraries, senior centers, and municipal work places.
“We trained multiple groups of teachers, Parent Teacher Organizations, and school staff,” she says. They offer a youth program, using the same content in a more interactive format, using role play to engage a younger audience.
“We use it to train peer mentors, people who will be in the schools, paying attention to these topics in their school systems,” she says.
One of Hagar’s colleagues uses the program on college campuses, training residence advisors (RAs), and orientation leaders. Another uses it in health classes, and another incorporates it as a module in her conflict resolution training program. “It’s been really cool to watch it spread. The intended audience has really grown and shifted with time.”
“Everything I learned at Simmons has moved me forward in intentional and purposeful ways to find the most effective way to achieve what I envision. Getting Stronger Together where it is now is because of what I learned at Simmons,” Hagar says.