Faculty and Staff
The social work faculty maintains strong linkages through active involvement in the community and the region. They provide continuing and professional development through collaboration with other agencies and the local branch of the Ontario Association of Social Workers. The areas of interest and expertise of faculty are reflected in activities including leadership on committees, board membership, consultation, presentations, workshops, and many other scholarly pursuits.
Faculty contributions in research, projects, and publications and conference presentations are recognized regionally, nationally and internationally.
Faculty members maintain a good working relationship and solid team approach within the School while maintaining an openness and availability to each other and to students. Although individual course Instructors post regular office hours, most maintain an open-door policy. This provides students the opportunity to maintain contact with Instructors and seek guidance and assistance in their learning.
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ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR |
David Tranter (Ph.D)
David Tranter worked for many years as a social worker before returning to school to undertake a PhD and join the Social Work Faculty. His practice background has varied widely ranging from working with special needs children, to working with the homeless, to providing couple and family counselling, to consulting with large organizations and businesses. David’s teaching focus is social work theory. His research includes: the construction of gender, men’s health, collaborative consultation models, conflict resolution and mediation, and organizational behaviour. David is married with three children and a troublesome labrador retriever.
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FIELD EDUCATION/ADMISSIONS COORDINATOR |
Jill Zachary (MSW, RSW)
Jill Zachary is the
School
of
Social Work Field Education
and Admissions Coordinator (undergraduate level). She began her affiliation with
Lakehead
University
as a Group Facilitator with the Family Life Institute and acted in the capacity of field instructor for HBSW students for many years. Jill's professional career as Education Liaison Counselor with the Territorial Student Program and as a social worker with the Northwestern Regional Centre reflects her commitment to both the profession and to social work education.
In 1992 Jill became Associate Field Coordinator for the
School
of
Social Work
and moved into the position of Field Education and Admission Coordinator in 2004. Jill's role includes working with students to ensure a smooth admissions process and to assist them in coordinating undergraduate placements that are unique, meaningful and challenging. She has a keen interest in fostering international opportunities for students and has facilitated placement connections in
Australia
,
New Zealand
,
Sweden
,
Iceland
and
Norway
for those interested in pursuing this challenge.
Elizabeth (Lee) Brownlee, M.A. (Soc. Sci.) S.W., R.S.W.
Elizabeth (Lee) Brownlee obtained her HBSW degree through the University of the Witwatersrand in
South Africa
, and went on to complete a Masters degree in Social Work through the
University
of
South Africa
. She has extensive practice experience in the area of children’s mental health, both in
South Africa
and in
Northwestern Ontario
, and is especially interested in the use of play therapy techniques with child clients, particularly in cross-cultural settings. Lee has been involved in supervising the field practicum experiences of social work students since 1986, both on-site and off-site, and has been working in the role of Field Education Coordinator at the
School
of
Social Work
since 2004. Lee enjoys the challenge of facilitating field placements for fourth year social work students and continues her work in the area of children’s mental health.
Keith Brownlee (Ph.D)
Keith Brownlee has provided professional mental health services to families and individuals for more than twenty years. Aside from individual and group therapy, he has experience as a family therapist, play therapist, supervisor, clinical director, executive director and consultant. He continues to offer clinical and consultation services to mental health programs in Northwestern Ontario. Keith teaches courses on clinical practice and research and statistics. His research interests include: issues affecting families and their functioning, facilitating change with families and individuals, narrative models of therapy and general questions related to clinical practice, including clinical practice in Northern and Rural areas. Keith is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment and acts as a reviewer for the journals: Rural Social Work, Canadian Social Work Review and Community Mental Health Journal. He also co-leads two research projects, the Collaborative Family Therapy Program with Prof. Tranter and the Aboriginal Attachment Project with Prof. Neckoway.
Roger Delaney (Ph.D) - Webpage
Roger Delaney received his M.S.W. in 1970 from the Maritime School of Social Work at
Dalhousie
University
. First employed in
Fredericton
, N.B., Roger worked in social assistance, child welfare and community organization in both worker and supervisor roles. From 1973-75, Roger worked as a social planner and policy analyst for the
Province
of
Prince Edward Island
and was responsible for the implementation of the five regional service centres. In 1975, he went to the
University
of
Toronto
for his PhD specializing in Policy, administration and research. In 1979, Roger completed his PhD. His thesis focused on Children's Aid Societies in
Northwestern Ontario
. Roger joined the faculty at
Lakehead
University
in 1977. During this time, he has served as chair/director for 13 years, Graduate Co-ordinator for 2 years and on every School committee. He has also served and is serving on a number of Senate and University committees including the Senate Executive Committee, Senate Academic Appeals Committee, the Senate Organization Committee, the Senate Undergraduate Studies Committee, the Senate Computer Committee, and the Lakehead University Judicial Panel as well as various LUFA, Decanal Search and Strategic P{lanning Committees. Roger is a co-author of Canadian Social Policy: an Introduction (3 Editions) as well as being a co-editor of five books on northern and rural social work. Roger's main interests are social policy and social welfare, anti-oppressive social work, rural and northern social work, social work/welfare philosophy and ethics, poverty, organizational and community development, family violence, child welfare, and youth justice.
Connie Holmes Nelson (Ph.D) -
Webpage
Dr. Connie Nelson is a professor in the School of Social Work, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, member of the Faculty of Graduate Studies for the Master of Public Health and Forest Sciences Ph.D. program, and Director of the Food Security Research Network. Dr. Nelson contributes expertise in community-based orientations to social work practice; both qualitative and quantitative research approaches; as well as topics of food security, local food systems, social capital, and community capacity building. She also contributes a strong and long-standing network of relationships with First Nations communities and municipal based organizations in Northwestern Ontario.
Dr. Connie Nelson has a long history of leading innovation initiatives at Lakehead University. She wrote Lakehead’s first NSERC technology transfer grant which was the foundation for the present University Innovation Office. She co-founded with Director Alan MacKenzie the Lakehead University Centre for Analytic Services (LUCAS) which continues after 12 years of operation to be one of our key university infrastructures for research.
Dr. Nelson has established a nationally recognized expertise in human subject ethics issues. Beginning at the university level, she has extensive experience in assessing ethics reviews involving humans having chaired the university REB for ten years, as well as developing an internal policy and procedures manual for ethical conduct in research involving humans. She has been a member of Lakehead's Animal Care Committee where she provided the leadership for the development of the first University Animal Care Policy. At the national level, she has been both the Chair and member of several NCEHR site visit teams where her expertise in dealing with issues of qualitative research and the ethics review process have proven extremely beneficial. Dr. Nelson has been a presenter at both national and regional NCEHR workshops. Moreover, she has been a member of the Executive of NCEHR, Chair of the Evaluation Site Visit Committee, and the Guest Editor for the spring 2004 issue of Communiqué.
Current research interests are in the development of social capital within place-based settings to enhance food security and thus health and well-being (See Curriculum Vitae and Research Tab. Long standing research has been successfully achieved in the development of a new practice model for helping called Contextual Fluidity. In the mid-eighties, colleague Dennis McPherson) and I developed a concept Contextual Fluidity (formerly referred to as Contextual Patterning) for describing how formal indigenous (aboriginal) workers negotiated the boundaries between formal and informal organizations and the two cultures of ‘decision-making’. Our initial peer-reviewed publications in this area were quoted and referenced in many subsequent publications and three books on northern practice. Research on this idea lay ‘dormant’ for the ten years that I devoted my career to research administration (Dean of Graduate Studies and Research) and my colleague returned for both LLB and MLB degrees. We have renewed research in this area based on supportive feedback from colleagues and students. The model has to date been published in two peer-reviewed journal articles, presented at a national peer-reviewed workshop, presented at a national peer-reviewed academic conference, used as a teaching module for Ph.D. students in an online course at University of Arizona, and for a Action for Neighborhood Change workshop. Planned activities for 2009 include using Contextual Fluidity in teaching community practice as part of a 4th year theory course; and within the next two years to write a book on the theory and experiences of Contextual Fluidity. Moreover, Contextual Fluidity presently is the operational structure for the Food Security Research Network that is the catalyst for many interdisciplinary research projects focused on food security. Contextual Fluidity is based on complexity theory which embraces that life just is in being unpredictable, emergent, evolving and adaptable (in contrast to machine like); recognizes that adaptation to change begins with being contextual and simultaneously fluid in one’s responses to specific contexts; embraces density of networks that overlap in contrast to linear, predefined processes; builds on strengths, respects each person’s contributions, and builds open and trusting relationships. We can only act in time and space from who we are. Every point becomes a centre. What may initially be viewed as an apparent limitation can actually be our greatest asset. All connections (both big and small) alter the patterns around us as we ourselves shift. These times of enormous complexity offer tremendous opportunity for transformation.
Mary Lou Kelley (Ph.D)
Mary Lou Kelley has an MSW from the
University
of
Toronto
, and an interdisciplinary PhD in Human and Social Development from the
University
of
Victoria
. She has taught social work theory and practice, gerontology and palliative care since 1980. She is Graduate Coordinator for Gerontology, a collaborative graduate faculty member in Women’s Studies, and a core faculty member in the Master of Public Health Program. She is Director of the Centre for Education and Research in Aging and Health and a research affiliate with
Lakehead
University
’s Centre for Northern and Rural Health Research. Since 1980, her research has focused on long-term care of older persons, palliative care, education for health care professionals, and community-based care delivery to rural seniors. Current projects relate to end-of-life care in rural and remote areas. Graduate students have participated in much of this research. Since 1993, Mary Lou has been the project manager for the Ontario MOH Palliative Care Education Initiatives, delivered by the Northern Educational Centre for Aging and Health. From 2001-2003, Mary Lou was appointed by Allan Rock, federal Minister of Health, to Health
Canada
’s Advisory Committee on Rural Health. The mandate of the committee was to champion current and emerging issues in rural health and provide independent advice on action needed to improve the health of rural citizens and communities. Issues under study include: promoting healthy rural communities, health human resources, telehealth and aboriginal health. She currently represents the profession of social work on Education for Health Care Professionals, a standing committee of the Palliative Care Secretariat, Health
Canada
. Mary Lou is actively involved in community organizations such as the regional End-of-Life Steering Committee.
Marg McKee has undergraduate degrees in nursing and psychology, a masters degree in clinical psychology, and a Ph.D in counselling psychology. She has worked for many years as a counsellor in private practice, and has come to academic life later in her career. She has a special interest in working with women and families, and with people with life-threatening illness. Her research and writing centres around the relationship between theory and practice, how students and experienced practitioners link knowing and doing, and more specifically, how counsellors can become more critically self-reflective about the sources of their knowing.
Jo-Ann Vis graduated with her Masters in Social Work Degree from the
University
of
Toronto
in 1990. Since that time Jo-Ann worked as a front line social worker and clinical manager/supervisor for Family Services. It is during this time that she also pursued her interest in organizational health, providing employee assistance services and corporate consultation to a wide variety of companies and human service organizations. In addition to this, Jo-Ann has also continued her interests in individual and family therapy. Jo-Ann is a clinical member and approved supervisor with the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. Jo-ann received her Ph.D. from the University of Calgary. Her areas of interest and research include trauma, clinical social work practice, strength based approaches for change and organizational health.
Lida Fan (Ph.D)
Lida Fan has a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Economics, an MBA in finance, and he is currently a Ph.D candidate in social work at
University
of
Calgary
. He currently teaches Social Policy and Research Methods at the
School
of
Social Work
. His major area of research is policy analysis and he has published in the areas of evaluation of social programs in
Canada
, public health care in transitional countries, evaluation of poverty reduction programs in Caucasus countries, and the determinants and consequences of internal migration in
China
. He is also interested in the study of epistemologies in social work education and methodologies for social studies.
Prior to her academic career Erin Gray worked as a child welfare caseworker, and as a mental health therapist. She is a Core Supervisor Faculty member for the Collaborative Master's with Specialization in Women's Studies and the Social Work Rep to the Women's Studies Graduate Committee. Erin Gray’s research interests center on multi-sectoral systems collaborations to improve health and other quality of life outcomes for vulnerable populations, such as children and families living with low income and in receipt of income and social services. Related research concerns involve the regulatory functions and ethical responsibilities of the social work profession to effectively address social justice issues. Her research employs mainly qualitative methodologies and strategies including constructivist grounded theory and participatory approaches
Dr. Susan Scott (BA/BSW, MSW, PhD)
Dr. Scott has 25 years of social work practice – in both social policy/research and clinical practice. Her research interests and practical experiences include justice, mental health, health care planning, children and youth issues, education, young offenders, child welfare, children's mental health, and the court systems. Dr. Scott has worked for federal and provincial governments doing policy, research, business planning, and program development. Also, she has been in private practice consulting for 17 years, providing services to community organizations, governments of all levels, private sector corporations, as well as community-based youth justice programming, children's mental health, and youth gangs. At Lakehead –
Orillia
, she teaches Social Policy & Social Welfare, Theory of Social Work Practice 1, and Field Instruction.
Anne Marie Walsh (Ph.D)
Anne Marie Walsh has worked extensively in the field of child welfare in
Ontario
– both locally and provincially, and has experience in the area of custody and access dispute in
Ontario
. She has a PhD in Education from the
University
of
Toronto
and degrees in Social Work as well as Psychology from
McMaster
University
. Anne Marie is interested in how social work, or any human helping response, is enhanced by its interconnections with the arts, education, depth psychology and religious or wisdom traditions. An additional concern in her work is for the effects of social work practice upon the workers especially in child welfare. At Lakehead’s
Orillia
campus, she teaches courses in the areas of social work theory and skills development, child welfare and diversity.
Sonya Matson
Marietta
Buzzie
Professor Emeritus of Social Work
Dr. Don Carpenter
Sessional Lecturers (2009 - 2010)
Nancy Jokinen
Juanita Lawson
Tammy McKinnon
Jana-Rae Yerxa
