Child Welfare Expert Featured in CSW Lecture Series
On March 30, Mark Courtney visited the FSU College of Social Work and gave two well received presentations on the area of child welfare, including:
“Trends in Child Welfare: The Emerging Focus on Child Well Being” presented in the morning as a continuing education presention at the Leon Human Services Center co-sponsored by Big Ben Community Based Care.
“Contributors to Post-Secondary Education of Foster Youth Making the Transition to Adulthood: Results from Projects Funded by State Government, NIH, NIJ, and Several Foundations” presented later in the day as the third presentation in the 2012 CSW Lecture Series.
Professor Courtney is a faculty affiliate of Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, which he served as director (2001-2006). He also served on the faculties of the University of Washington (2007-2010) and the University of Wisconsin (1992-2000). He was the founding director of Partners for Our Children (POC), a public-private partnership housed at the University of Washington devoted to improving child welfare services. POC received the 2008 American Public Human Services Association’s Award for Academic Excellence.
Dr. Courtney received the 2010 Peter W. Forsythe Award for leadership in public child welfare from the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators. His fields of interest are: child welfare policy and services, the transition to adulthood for vulnerable populations, the connection between child welfare services and other institutions serving vulnerable populations, and the professionalization of social work. His current work, includes: studies of the adult functioning of former foster children, experimental evaluation of independent living influence of juvenile courts on the operation of the child welfare system.
Dr. Courtney obtained his MSW and doctoral degree from the School of Social Welfare at the University of California at Berkeley. Before moving into academia, he worked for several years in various capacities providing group home care to abused and neglected adolescents. He has served as a consultant to the federal government, state departments of social services, local public and private child welfare agencies, and the philanthropic community.