Maddy Zijdel

Title: Assistant Director of Clinical Support
Email: mzijdel@echo.rutgers.edu

Maddy Zijdel, mzijdel@echo.rutgers.edu, is the Assistant Director of Clinical Support and one of the clinicians at the Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance. She is a Licensed Social Worker in the State of New Jersey. She is also certified in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) through the Evergreen Institute which is one of the primary modalities she uses in her trauma work. Maddy also serves as a Field Instructor for the Rutgers School of Social Work and enjoys supervising VAWC (Violence Against Women and Children) certificate MSW (Master in Social Work) interns. Maddy is an alumnus from Rutgers University, twice over. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Dance from Mason Gross School of the Arts in May, 2013 and received her Master in Social Work (MSW) with a certificate in Violence Against Women and Children (VAWC) in May, 2015. During her second year of graduate school, she interned with VPVA and knew then that her ultimate career goal was to work at VPVA as a full-time staff member. Upon graduating, she worked at the Center on Violence Against Women and Children at Rutgers University, coding results from the 2014 Campus Climate Survey and doing some graphic design work. She then went on to work at SAFE in Hunterdon, a non-profit domestic violence and sexual assault county agency as a Prevention Specialist, Prevention Coordinator, and Safe House Advocate. In November 2017, through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) project and grant, Maddy was able to fulfill her dream and rejoin VPVA as a full-time staff member. Since starting at VPVA, she created a program, Rutgers CARES, that teaches students how to effectively respond to their peers when they disclose having been victimized. This has been evaluated through the VOCA project and presented at ResilienceCon, in Nashville, TN. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Maddy was excited to receive her first publication along with other colleagues from Rutgers University. She assisted in writing an article on how staff were supporting campus survivors of interpersonal violence through the difficulty of the pandemic which was later published in the Social Work in Health Care Journal. Maddy absolutely loves supporting the survivors, the students and her colleagues and was awarded the Rutgers Student Affairs McGinty Star Award for her passion, dedication, and hard work. In August, 2021, Maddy restarted her academic journey at Rutgers as a DSW, Doctorate of Social Work, student. In her spare time, Maddy loves spending time with her dog and four guinea pigs.