Meri Stiles
Dr. Meri Stiles joined Daemen College this year as an associate professor of social work. She previously taught psychology and human services at Lyndon State College, where she was awarded a three-year alcohol prevention grant through the NCAA, which supported a number of innovative health promotion programs for college and high school students.
Her teaching interests include clinical practice with children and adolescents, alcohol, drugs, and social work practice, and mindfulness for wellness. Stiles has experience as a therapist at an outpatient mental health clinic, where she worked with children, adolescents, and families. She has also worked with adults as a clinical social worker in a psychiatric hospital.
Stiles’ research interests are substance use prevention, substance use secondhand effects, and mindfulness-based interventions. She recently traveled to New Orleans to present a paper, “Exploring the Association Between Secondhand Effects and Substance Use in a Sample of Rural College Students,” at the Society of Social Work Research annual conference.
Stiles holds a doctorate in social welfare and an MSW, both from the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. A qualified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher through the Oasis Institute Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Boston, she held MBSR programs for Lyndon students, faculty, staff, administrators, and community members.
An active visual artist, Stiles has had a number of solo and group showings of her work. In March, she has a solo exhibit, “Objects of Meditation,” on display in the Quimby Gallery.