USER

I earned a BA in English at the University of Utah, and both my MSW and Ph.D. (in social work) at the University of Kansas in 1977 and 1984 respectively. I have worked as a social worker in inpatient and outpatient mental health and substance abuse treatment settings, hospice and home health care, managed mental health care, and private practice. I started teaching full-time at the University of Oklahoma in 1989. In 1994, I joined the social work faculty at Saint Louis University. From July 2002 through July 2010, I served as the Department Chair and Director of the MSW Program at Washburn University. In July 2012, I became chair of the Social Work Department at the University of South Dakota. In addition to my duties as chair, I served as the interim Director of the MSW Program from March 2014 to July 2016. I am a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), and the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). I have been a site team visitor for the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and a member of the Examination Committee for the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB). I have served as an item writer for the Clinical Social Work examination since 2002 and a form reviewer for the several years. My current research and scholarly interests include health and mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment and the recovery process, indigenous/natural helping, and cognitive-emotional-behavioral-and spiritual change.