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School of Social Welfare

Ph.D. Doctoral Faculty


For a complete listing of Faculty Visit the Faculty Web Pages - Update link

Deborah Adams, Ph.D.., Washington (St. Louis), Professor. Violence against women; asset-based anti-poverty initiatives; social and economic development; quantitative research methods.

Mahasweta Banerjee, Ph.D.., Washington (St. Louis), Associate Professor. Theories and practices associated with social and economic community development; micro-enterprise as an anti-poverty strategy; critique of welfare reform through constructivist research.

Marianne Berry, Ph.D.. , California (Berkeley), Professor. Child welfare; program and practice evaluations; interventions with children and families including family preservation and adoption.

Sondra Beverly, Ph.D.., Washington (St. Louis). Programs and policies related to welfare reform, asset accumulation, material hardship, and the use of financial services by low-income individuals.

Edward Canda, Ph.D.., Ohio State, Professor. Cross-cultural and international social work; spirituality and religious diversity; Asian and Asian-American issues; qualitative research approaches; philosophy of social welfare; health and resiliency.

Rosemary Chapin, Ph.D.., Minnesota, Professor. Strengths based social policy; public policy in long term care financing and in the promotion of autonomy and community alternatives for elders with disabilities.

Catherine Crisp, Ph.D.., Texas (Austin), Assistant Professor. Substance abuse; mental health; practice with gay and lesbian clients.

Mark Ezell, Ph.D.., Florida State, Associate Professor. Social work administration; juvenile justice; social work advocacy; research and program evaluation; and privatization and contracting.

Helen Hartnett, Ph.D.., Ohio State, Assistant Professor. Community practice and neighborhood change; housing; "homelessness"; poverty; and the connections between social geography and social work practice.

Mark Holter, Ph.D.., Columbia University, Associate Professor. Community integration and recovery for adults with serious mental illness, with emphasis on consumer-run and supported education programs; development and use of program fidelity measures.

Stephen Kapp, Ph.D.., Michigan State, Assistant Professor. Juvenile justice, agency-based program evaluation including outcome-oriented program management and consumer-based input.

Alice Lieberman, Ph.D.., Wisconsin, Associate Professor. Social work education in child welfare; effect of vendorship legislation on practice; reproductive rights policy and teen pregnancy.

Thomas McDonald, Ph.D.., Wisconsin, Professor. Child welfare and children’s mental health; research methods and statistical analysis; service delivery; use of information systems in policy and practice decisions.

Messinger, Lori, Ph.D.., Associate Professor

Holly Nelson-Becker, Ph.D.., Chicago, Associate Professor. Gerontology and mental health, spirituality as a mental health resource, end-of-life concerns, social work practice, and human behavior

K. Jean Peterson, D.S.W., Columbia, Professor. Social work theory and practice with special interest in issues connected to sexual orientation and women.

Christopher Petr, Ph.D.., Kansas, Associate Professor. Policy and practice issues in child mental health and child welfare; family-centered practice; professional-consumer relationship.

Charles Rapp, Ph.D.., Illinois, Professor. Development and testing of client-centered administrative practices, community mental health practice and policy centered on people with severe mental illness.

Edward Scanlon, Ph.D.., Washington (St. Louis), Associate Professor. Social work practice.

Margaret Severson, J.D., M.S.W., Denver, Associate Professor. Research and practice in social justice venues, including mental health and suicide prevention programming in detention centers, divorce and child custody mediation, restorative justice and social work ethics.

Woochan Shim,  Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Assistant Professor Domestic violence and intersection with child maltreatment and spirituality; worker-client relationships; adjustment issues among transnational families or multinational households; and diversity

Richard Spano, Ph.D.., Minnesota, Associate Professor. Child welfare, particularly foster care, sexual abuse; the history of social work and social welfare, ethics and values at they impact practice.

Ariana Wall, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Assistant Professor. Child welfare, particularly the maltreatment-delinquency link; adolescent problem behavior; gender differences in risk and protective factors associated with problem behaviors; and research methods.