Edward Mullen:
New Center Director

Alan B. Siskind, Executive Vice President, JBFCS, and Ronald A. Feldman, Dean, CUSSW, have named Edward J. Mullen as Director of the Center for the Study of Social Work Practice effective March 1, 1992. Dr, Mullen continues as Professor of Social Work at CUSSW, and as Director of the NIMH funded Doctoral Training Program in Mental Health Services Research. He has also served as Associative Dean since joining the CUSSW faculty in 1987. From 1976 through 1986 he was Professor at the University of Chicago, School of Social Service administration, where he served as Chairman of the Doctoral Program as well as Director of the NIMH funded Pre- and Postdoctoral Training Program in Mental Health Services Research. He has also been a member of the faculty at University of Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service (1967-1976)and a Visiting Professor and Chair of the Doctoral Program at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Mullen received a master's degree in social work from Catholic University of America and a doctorate in social welfare from Columbia University. He has served as Director of the Institute of Welfare Research, Community Service Society of New York, and has held positions in direct practice with a range of social agencies, including the NIMH Clinical Neuropharmacology Research Center, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, D.C., and the Jewish Family Service Agency, New York.

Dr. Mullen has served in numerous international, national and city positions. He has been Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam-Laos-Khmer Panel, Southeast Asia Development Advisory Group, the Asia Society, and currently is serving a second term as a member of the board of the U.S. Committee of the International Conference on Social Welfare. He has served as a number of the Board of Directors of the Council on Social Work Education as well as chairman of many national and local professional committees. He is currently Co-chairman of the Commission on Human Services in Housing, New York City Housing Authority, and has recently served as Chairman of the Strategic Action Committee, Priorities Allocation Technical Advisory Committee of the United Way of New York. Dr. Mullen has served on the editorial boards and as consulting editor for several professional journals including the Journal of Social Service Research, Social Work Research and Abstract, and the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science.

His research and publications have examined the form and contents of practice knowledge, methods foe study of practice knowledge, and the effectiveness of professional intervention. His publications were among the first to present a precise empirical description of the process of psychosocial intervention. Two publications - Preventing Chronic Dependency, and Evaluation of Social Intervention - were original contribution to the profession's examination of both its mode of practice as well as its educational programs. Dr. Mullen's research also has examined how practitioners use information to form their particular practice models. The possibility of explicating the content and form of this practitioner knowledge has lead to his current research in the area of knowledge-based expert systems. Dr. Mullen believes that too little is known about the form and contents of what might be considered expert practitioner knowledge, as well as how information of relevance to expertise might be developed for use by practitioners.

Dr. Mullen's research and publications have also examined a range of other areas including minority leadership development, social program design, research methodology, mental health services, and various aspects of social work education programming.