Department of Social Sciences
Social Work Program
- If you are looking for a career with meaning, action, diversity, satisfaction, and an abundance of options in work settings, consider social work. Social work is a profession for those with a strong desire to assist in improving people's lives. Social workers help people function the best way they can in their environment, deal with their relationships, and solve personal and family problems. Individual problems may include but are not limited to inadequate housing, unemployment, serious physical and mental illness, disability and/or substance abuse. Social workers also assist families that have serious domestic conflicts, including those involving child or spousal abuse. The social work profession has its own body of knowledge, code of ethics, practice standards, credentials, state licensing and a nationwide system of accredited education programs. These equip the professional social worker to combine the desire to help others with the knowledge, skill, and ethics necessary to provide the professional help needed.
For the sheer variety, few professions can match social work for the range of work opportunities and settings. Social workers can be found in public agencies such as protective services, private practice, hospitals, mental health clinics, schools, nursing homes, correctional facilities, courts, police departments, domestic violence shelters industry and other interesting work places.
If these opportunities are of interest, Pittsburg State's Social Work Program is the place for you.
Faculty of the Social Work Program
- Wayne Busby: Professor
- Ph.D., University of Oklahoma, 1985; MSW Social Work, Louisiana State University. Teaching and research interests include social policy analysis, health care and social work, assessment of social work practices, theories and policies, and services related to families and children, and the effect of the life cycle on individual development. ( wbusby@pittstate.edu)
- Brad Cameron: Professor
- Ed.D., University of Arkansas, 1990; JD Law, Oklahoma City University; MSW Social Work, University of Oklahoma. Teaching and research interests include social work and the law, application of modal forms of intervention in social work, and justice studies issues, especially related to the application of legal principles. [Coordinator for the social work program.] ( bcameron@pittstate.edu)
- Dorthy Stucky Halley: Assistant Professor
- M.S.W., University of Kansas, 1995. Teaching and research interests include the issues surrounding intimate violence, directing applied field experiences, and social work pedagogy. [Coordinator of social work field experiences.] ( dhalley@pittstate.edu)
- Teresa Woods: Assistant Professor
- ABD, Texas Tech University. Teaching and research interests include ageing and learning, social gerontology, and policy/program evaluation. ( twoods@pittstate.edu)
Teresa Woods is also a member of the Center for the Study of Poverty and Student Achievement. The link to this Center is http://www.pittstate.edu/fcs/PovertyCenter.htm. -