Rural roots power Kayla Spivey’s route to social work

By Sian Wilkerson

Growing up in a rural corner of Chesapeake in southeastern Virginia, Kayla Spivey discovered an early calling toward service.

"I saw how substance abuse and poverty really affected the people in my neighborhood, and even my family," said Spivey, now in the final year of her undergraduate studies in Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Social Work. "I feel like I was able to leave and go to school, so it's part of my responsibility to see what I can do for the place that I came from."

Despite that clarity of vision, it still took time to find the educational path that would help Spivey achieve her goals.

After high school graduation, she enrolled at George Mason University in Northern Virginia, where she explored classes in music, psychology and business. After COVID, Spivey decided to pause her studies: "I was like, 'Well, I don't really even know what I want to do anyway," she said with a laugh.

The break gave her a chance to re-evaluate, and Spivey eventually landed on social work, drawn to its focus on both application and theory. She enrolled in the pre-social work program at Reynolds Community College and then, in 2025, transferred to VCU and the bachelor's program in the School of Social Work, where she has also pursued her research interests through the Evaluation Lab.

The Evaluation Lab gives undergraduate and graduate students hands-on research experience by partnering them with community agencies across a range of professions and missions. Some of the lab's recent partners include an adult day center, a health and wellness center, behavioral health providers and other agencies focused on education and criminal justice programming.

Through the Evaluation Lab, Spivey and other students working in the lab "have the opportunity to get involved with real-world research and evaluation projects that have the potential to directly impact the community," said Rebecca Smith, Ph.D., co-director of the Evaluation Lab and a research instructor in the School of Social Work. "Students can apply what they've learned in class to a variety of community-based settings and see firsthand how research can inform policies, programs, and evidence-based interventions. At the same time, they get to learn more about and give back to the Richmond community in a meaningful way."

As part of her role, Spivey has worked on projects from making learning models to conducting surveys: "Every day is a little bit different," she said. "We have so many clients that have very different projects. I have some weeks where it's very heavily focused on data analysis; other weeks, I'm writing alternative text for photos for accessibility. It really is different, and I can move around and focus on different things without getting bogged down so heavily."

In addition to her work-study position at the Evaluation Lab, Spivey works on her own research, which examines the state of rural mental health in Virginia.

"For a lot of rural areas, hospital closures are a really big thing. And then of course geographic isolation," said Spivey, whose research is supported by a VCU Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship Summer Fellowship. "So what are the things that we can do to make it easier?"

Eventually, Spivey will display her work at the annual Poster Symposium for Undergraduate Research, organized by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and part of VCU Research Weeks in April.

Beyond academics, Spivey spends her weekends at a local mental health group home where she works with women with schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia who have been through the criminal justice system. At home, she enjoys spending time with her husband, whom she married in April, and their dog, Bailey.

Next year, they'll take their long-awaited honeymoon to New Orleans and celebrate another milestone: Spivey expects to graduate in the spring, with an eye toward pursuing graduate studies in the VCU School of Social Work. She hopes to continue her research and become a case manager wherever she and her family settle down.