Center Directions
By Edward J. Mullen

As the new Director of the Center for the Study of Social Work Practice, I begin my responsibilities with enthusiasm. The Center is now well established, thanks to Shirley Jenkins, Mark Mattaini, and the leadership provided by JBFCS and CUSSW. Shirley's excitement, commitment, and intellect combined with her understanding of the intricate nature of the practice-research relationship has provided the Center with a sound foundation. I am grateful to Shirley for her excellent work, and I look forward to further developing the Center's mission and program.

The Center's initial years have been successful, and a sound infrastructure has been established. Its endowment of $2,500,000 maintains the Center's core operations and provides support to fund CUSSW faculty and students and JBFCS staff to conduct studies and to engage in proposal development. It is hoped that through this use of endowment income additional outside funding may be secured for the conduct of practice studies. Since the Center's view of practice is broad and inclusive of all activities engaged in by professional social workers, an objective for the coming year will be the establishment of research priorities. While much has been written in recent years about the profession's research methods and capacity, little effort has focused on a critical review of research priorities. Because of the remarkable changes occurring in the human services as well as in every sector of society, areas for future study and development will need to be critically, creatively, and openly examined. Following the Center's successful 1991 conference, we hope in 1993 to convene experts to examine research needs, and to recommend priorities for future study. The results of Center deliberations during the coming year will be disseminated for the profession's use. As priorities for future study are being considered, a number of important studies will be conducted by the Center.

It is my hope that faculty, students and Agency practitioners will find the Center to be a facilitative and stimulating environment for collaborative studies that will explore and expand the knowledge necessary to shape social work practice. I look forward to the Center building new relationships with researchers and practitioners sharing similar interests in the study of social work practice. During the past year the Center has particularly benefitted by the expertise and commitment of its former Acting Director, Mark Mattaini, and from the outstanding support of Ronald A. Feldman, Dean, CUSSW, and Alan B. Siskind, Executive Vice-President, JBFCS, two unusually gifted executives. The Center's Professional Advisory Committee, under the chairmanship of Steven Schinke, has provided thoughtful guidance about research directions. The Development Council, under the chairmanship of David Lindau, has provided wise counsel and played a major role in the launching of the Center's outstanding conference on "bridging the gap" between practice and research. This effort was largely made possible by a generous gift from the Virginia and Leonard Marx Foundation.

I first met Shirley Jenkins in 1964, the year she joined the CUSSW faculty and the year I began my doctoral studies at the School. My admiration for Shirley as a person and as a research colleague only grew stronger over the years. Her bravery and continuing commitment to the Center were underscored when, shortly after learning of her illness, she came to me to tell of her condition. Quickly putting aside her own fear and suffering, she turned to future hopes for the Center and for the NIMH training program. It was the merging of her personal and professional identities that kept her focused on the future well-being of those programs which she held dear. I am privileged that Shirley encouraged me to assume directorship of the NIMH doctoral training program, and that I now have the opportunity to build upon her work at the Center.