Dr. Richard Hara has training both in social work (MS, Columbia University School of Social Work) and in cultural anthropology (PhD, CUNY Graduate Center). As a social worker he has over 10 years direct practice experience in oncology, first as a clinical social worker at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and then as Director of Online Services at CancerCare, managing a national program of online support groups serving the needs of cancer patients and caregivers.

He has presented extensively at professional conferences on cultural competence in oncology social work, end-of-life and bereavement counseling, and how to utilize online communication with clients in a clinical context. In addition to being co-author of a guide for cancer caregiving, he has published articles on cancer survivorship and on domestic violence screening and intervention issues in the oncology population. Dr. Hara has taught courses on social work supervision and program evaluation at Hunter College School of Social Work and New York University Silver School of Social Work, and as a student program coordinator, he has run both BSW- and MSW-level field placements. He has also been the principal investigator for an institutional training grant from the American Cancer Society for 2nd-year MSW students in clinical oncology social work.

In anthropology his primary area of interest was the relationship between culture and economy in family and household structure, and his research was supported by numerous grants including a Fulbright doctoral fellowship and a post-doctoral grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. He is a member of the Institutional Review Board of a major medical center in New York City, and is currently focusing his own research on how technology is shaping the nature and delivery of social services, and the ways clinical practice is being extended and translated into new media.

Last updated November 09, 2010 .