Skip to main content
Ariel Rendt Padron, LCSW, MSW, is the current Director of Practice Education for CMU’s Master of Social Work Program and an Assistant Professor of Social Work.

Padron has taught subject matter at multiple levels, having provided abuse prevention, substance use prevention, and suicide prevention curricula to K-12 programs in both California and Colorado. She is passionate about where development, education, and wellbeing intersect and finds a way to integrate this into her classroom teaching. Padron has taught for both the BSW and MSW programs at CMU, and she is considered well-versed in clinical social work with her DORA Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) license. Padron specializes in trauma, neurodevelopment, persistent mental health, and evidence-based clinical intervention.

Padron has chosen her career at CMU due to the school’s commitment to learners and connection, while the location is in close proximity to several outdoor activities she enjoys in her free time. Padron brings determination, energy, follow-through, and curiosity to everything she engages in.

Padron’s research interests include, but are not limited to: quality mental health care, limitations to mental health intervention studies, persistent mental health and how it relates to social system access and neurodevelopment, and how integrated/inter-disciplinary teams can manage functioning and case collaboration most effectively.

Please feel free to reach out to her with any questions, concerns, or ideas. She believes some of the best learning happens during collaboration and discussion outside of the classroom, with those willing to be curious.