Dr. Amy Doolittle
Sabbatical Spotlight explores the meaningful and innovative work University of Tennessee at Chattanooga faculty members undertake during professional development leave. The series also illustrates how leave can advance scholarly, creative, teaching and professional work.
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Before joining the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2007, Dr. Amy Doolittle and her husband spent the first 24 years of their marriage in pastoral ministry, serving churches in Georgia, Alaska and Kentucky.
During that time, Doolittle saw members of their congregations age and sometimes lose their connection to the communities they had once been part of.
Doolittle, an associate professor and director of the Master of Social Work program, spent her fall 2025 professional development leave exploring the role churches can play in supporting people with dementia and their caregivers.
In her research, she was able to combine pastoral ministry and social work, two major parts of her life.
“I think it marries those two things for me, my ministry experience and my social work experience,” Doolittle said.
Her interest in the subject became even more intense when her grandmother developed dementia and eventually moved into long-term care, where she was no longer able to attend church regularly.
“She had been very involved in her church, but she didn’t receive any pastoral visits when she went into long-term care,” Doolittle said. “That just broke my heart.”
She also began thinking about her mother, who helped care for her grandmother, and whether anyone had asked what support she needed as a caregiver.
“That sort of planted a seed,” she said.
During her professional development leave, Doolittle had the time to turn that seed into a research project she calls “Fateful Presence,” focused on serving people with dementia and their caregivers.
The project did not move as quickly as she expected. Her first survey went to 279 people and received only 12 responses.
Doolittle adjusted her methodology and expanded her outreach. By the time the survey closed, she had gathered about 40 responses and shifted her attention toward the open-ended responses.
Those conversations convinced her to keep going.
“I had one retired pastor, he goes, ‘You have no idea what you’re on to. This is big,’” Doolittle recalled. “He said, ‘It may take a while, but this is really important what you’re talking about and what you’re interested in.’”
One idea Doolittle has discussed at her own church is a dementia-friendly service, designed with the needs of people with dementia and their caregivers in mind.
“When a lot of folks are maintained in the home, some family member manages their care,” she said. “As the disease progresses, they’re pulled out of life a whole lot more.”
Doolittle said this is where her background in ministry and social work comes together.
“We’re giving connectivity,” she said. “We’re helping them stay connected to things that help them stay grounded a bit. And we’re also providing services to the caretaker because if you’re a caretaker of someone with dementia, you need a lot of support.”
The dementia project was one of several Doolittle was able to move forward during her sabbatical.
She completed a manuscript examining student outcomes and the use of ePortfolios to assess competency in social work education, which was published in spring 2026. She also continued research with a colleague and a student examining perceived stress and self-care among people preparing for social work practice. The team is now adding a resilience component before submitting it to another journal.
Doolittle was recently re-elected to the National Association of Social Workers Tennessee Chapter Board of Directors and appointed by Gov. Bill Lee to serve on the Tennessee Board of Social Workers.
After 19 years at UTC, having a semester dedicated to research gave Doolittle uninterrupted time, something she rarely gets during the academic year.
“I could do in two or three hours what it could take me two or three weeks to do if I were trying to fit it in the office,” she said. “I could get on a topic and get into articles, highlighting and reading and calling folks.”
The experience gave her the time to get the project started and the space to think about where she wants her work to go next.
“I think that sabbatical gave me a season of refreshment where I can come back and say, ‘OK, I got a little bit of perspective gathering there,’” she said. “It helped me see what my focus is.”
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