Grand Challenges for Society

Tricia B. Bent-Goodley, PhD, LICSW, is professor of social work and immediate past director of the Doctoral Program at Howard University School of Social Work. She served as editor-in-chief of Social Work from 2014 to 2018. She serves as associate editor of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and as an editorial board member of the Encyclopedia of Social Work. She is the founding director of the Howard University Interpersonal Violence Prevention Program, founding member and chair of the Prince George’s County Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team, past national elected board member of the Council on Social Work Education, past chair and member of the NASW Committee on Women’s Issues, and past member of the Council on Social Work Education Commission on the Role and Status of Women. Her research areas include intervention research in areas of domestic and sexual violence, HIV prevention, engaging men and boys, and social work entrepreneurship. As a scholar-practitioner, Dr. Bent-Goodley received her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania and her PhD from Columbia University.

James Herbert Williams, PhD, MSW, MPA, is director and Arizona Centennial Professor of Social Welfare Services, School of Social Work, Arizona State University, Phoenix. He is dean emeritus, Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver. He has an MSW from Smith College School for Social Work, MPA from University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and a PhD in social welfare from the School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle. He served as editor-in-chief of Social Work Research from 2013 to 2018. He is a member of the Grand Challenges for Social Work Executive Committee, fellow in the American Academy for Social Work & Social Welfare, past-president of the Society for Social Work and Research, past-president of the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work, and chair National Advisory Committee, Fahs Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation. His areas of research are human security and economic sustainability, behavioral health disparities and health equity, social health services for African American children in urban schools, and community strategies for positive youth development.

Martell L. Teasley, PhD, MSW, is professor and dean of the College of Social Work at the University of Utah. He served as professor and chair of the Department of Social Work at the College of Public Policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio from 2012 to 2017. He was chair of the Social Work and Disaster Recovery Program at the College of Social Work at Florida State University from 2006 to 2012. His education includes a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and sociology from Fayetteville State University in 1994. He received an MSW degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1996 and a PhD in Social Work from Howard University in 2002. Dr. Teasley served in the U.S. Army for 10 years and participated in the first Persian Gulf War as a licensed practical nurse. He was elected President of the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work in 2017 for a three-year term. Martell was awarded the 2011 Gary Lee Shaffer Award for Academic Contributions to the Field of School Social Work from the School Social Work Association of America. He served as editor-in-chief for the NASW Press journal Children & Schools from 2013 to 2018. His primary research interests include African American adolescent development, cultural diversity, social welfare policy, and black studies.

Stephen H. Gorin, PhD, is professor emeritus of social work at Plymouth State University, University System of New Hampshire. He has a PhD in social welfare policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University. Gorin is coauthor of Health Care Policy and Practice: A Biopsychosocial Perspective, 4E and the newly published Behavioral and Mental Health Care Policy: A Biopsychosocial Perspective. He served as editor-in-chief of NASW’s Health & Social Work journal from 2007 to 2017. He served on President Clinton’s Health Care Task Force, as an adviser to the Coordinating Committee of the National Medicare Education Program, as a member of the Advisory Council of the U.S. Center for Mental Health Services; and was a delegate to White House Conferences on Aging and Social Security. He is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and serves on the standing editorial board of Oxford Bibliographies Online: Social Work. His areas of scholarship are inequality and health, social determinants of health, and health care policy and reform.

The editors of this book have carefully identified a collection of important articles within their respective journals that speak to social work practice methods for addressing many contemporary and future social welfare issues. It is sure to generate thought-provoking approaches to social welfare issues and new lines of inquiry.

Angelo McClain, PhD, LICSW
Chief Executive Officer
National Association of Social Workers