College of Health & Human Services Expansion

02/11/02

CONTACT:
Margie Yu
Public Affairs Spec.
(323) 343-3047

Calendar
of Events

Recent Changes Reflect Growth in Cal State L.A.'’s
College of Health and Human Services

Changes in Social Work
The Cal State L.A. School of Social Work contains 437 undergraduates, 153 graduate students and 12 full-time faculty. The baccalaureate program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. The Master of Social Work degree program, introduced in the 1996-97 academic year, has initial accreditation from the Council on Social Work Education. Dr. Thanh V. Tran, a leading national scholar in the area of research on health behaviors and well-being among various ethnic minority populations, has been named the director of the newly-designated School, as well as professor of social work. Prior to his appointment at Cal State L.A., Dr. Tran was director of the doctoral program at the School of Social Work at Boston College.

Changes in Nursing
The Cal State L.A. nursing program has been in existence as a department since the late 1960s and has been a unit in the College of Health and Human Services since its inception. The School of Nursing comprises about 200 pre-nursing majors, slightly over 200 undergraduate nursing students, more than 100 graduate students and 24 full-time faculty. The nursing programs are approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing and recently received continuing eight-year accreditation from the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC).

Since 2000, when it began surveying nursing graduate programs, U.S. News and World Report “Best Colleges” issue has listed Cal State L.A.’s nursing graduate program among the top five programs in California and the highest ranked CSU system School of Nursing. Dr. Judith Papenhausen, the chair of the Department of Nursing for the past six years and a nursing faculty member since 1972, directs the School.

Dr. Papenhausen received her B.S. and M.S. in nursing, both with high honors, from Cal State L.A., completed predoctoral work at USC and received her doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1999, she was honored with the first Cal State L.A. Faculty Alumni Award. She is the president of the California Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Changes in other departments within the College of Health and Human Services
The Programs in the former Department of Health and Nutritional Science—including the bachelor’s degree in Health Science and the bachelor’s degree in Nutritional Science—have been moved to the School of Nursing and the Department of Kinesiology, respectively. The move was based on the fit of the degree programs to their new locations, and their placement in well-established academic units is seen as a mutually enhancing opportunity. To reflect this change, the former Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education has been renamed the Department of Kinesiology and Nutritional Science. Dr. Janet Harris, professor of kinesiology, continues as the department’s chair. The coordinator of the Health Science program in the School of Nursing is Dr. Eleanor Ferguson-Marshalleck, professor of nursing.

In the fall quarter 2001, the name of the Department of Criminal Justice was changed to the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminalistics. The name change brings attention to an important program in the department and reflects the increasing interest in Criminalistics and continuing growth in the number of students seeking careers in that field. The department continues to be chaired by Dr. Deborah Baskin.

Acting Dean and New Associate Dean Named to the College of Health and Human Services
Dr. Alfredo G. González, dean of Undergraduate Studies and professor of social work, was named acting dean of the College of Health and Human Services, effective November 1, 2001. Dr. González will hold both posts of dean concurrently. Dr. Mitchell Maki, professor of social work, has been appointed as associate dean, effective Fall 2001.

Other College News
In other developments within the College of Health and Human Services, the current academic year has seen the appointment of Dr. Jeanette Takamura, former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Aging, to the Edward R. Roybal Endowed Chair in Gerontology and Public Service. The Edward R. Roybal Endowed Chair was established in 1985 to honor the leadership and advocacy of former U.S. Congressman Edward Roybal. The Roybal Institute is organized within the College of Health and Human Services to improve the quality of care and delivery of services to a culturally diverse population of older persons. It works to develop partnerships between the University and the community that promote the well-being of older adults and to establish scholarships for students planning to enter health and human service careers with a specialization in aging.

Student-centered, faculty and staff-focused, and community-minded, Cal State L.A.’s College of Health and Human Services is committed to educating and preparing human service professionals to become innovative practitioners and leaders. This education is effected within an interdisciplinary framework that integrates teaching, research, policy, and public service in multicultural urban settings.

The College comprises more than 60 full-time and numerous part-time faculty members and 29 staff members, the College serves approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate majors.

Alfredo G. González, dean, Undergraduate Studies; acting dean and professor of social work
As acting dean of the College of Health and Human Services, Alfredo G. González oversees the Schools of Nursing and Social Work, the departments of Child and Family Studies, Communication Disorders, Criminal Justice, and Kinesiology and Nutritional Science, the Roybal Institute for Applied Gerontology, the Robert F. Kennedy Fellows programs and certificate programs in Applied Gerontology, Child Maltreatment and Family Violence, Intercultural Proficiency, and Youth Agency Administration.

González came to Cal State L.A. as an assistant professor of sociology and social welfare in the fall of 1977. His fields of study are community organization, social welfare in minority communities, juvenile delinquency and higher education policy particularly as it affects low income and minority communities. He holds a B.S. degree in social service from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and M.S.W. and D.S.W. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

During his tenure at the University, González has served as an associate and acting chair of the Department of Sociology, assistant to the vice president of Academic Affairs, associate dean of the former School (now College) of Health and Human Services, and dean of Undergraduate Studies since 1989. He resides in West Covina, CA.

Mitchell Maki, associate dean and professor of social work, College of Health and Human Services
Prior to coming to Cal State L.A., Mitchell Maki was assistant professor in UCLA’s Department of Social Welfare. Before that, he worked for the Department of Public Social Services for Riverside County, El Centro Human Services in Los Angeles, and Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital.

A licensed clinical social worker, Maki earned his B.S. in Public Affairs, M.S.W., and Ph.D. in social work from USC. His professional affiliations include the National Association of Social Workers, Asian Pacific Social Work Council, Asian American Social Work Educators and the Asian American Drug Abuse Program in Los Angeles. He currently serves on the California Civil Liberties Education Project advisory board.

Maki’s field of study focuses on such topics as mental health, social work practice, cross-cultural awareness, gerontology, and crisis intervention. For four years, his column, “Through The Fire,” was published in The Rafu Shimpo daily newspaper. In 1999, he coauthored an award-winning book, Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress (University of Illinois Press). The book received a 2000 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award and was nominated for the Association of Asian American Studies Book Award 2001.

Maki received the Pacific Southwest District’s 2001 Japanese Americans Citizens League Community Service Award. He is a resident of Monterey Park, CA.

Judith L. Papenhausen, director, School of Nursing
Judith L. Papenhausen graduated from Cal State L.A. with a B.S. in nursing in 1971 and an M.S. in nursing in 1972, both with high honors. She completed pre-doctoral work at the University of Southern California and earned her Ph.D. in nursing at The University of Texas at Austin.

Papenhausen began her undergraduate career at Cal State L.A. with nine years of clinical experience as an O.R. staff nurse, charge nurse in the Medical-Surgical Unit, head nurse in the Coronary Care Unit and inservice instructor in Critical Care Nursing at Whittier, Palm Harbor and St. Joseph’s Hospitals. Immediately following the receipt of her Cal State L.A. master’s degree, the University hired Papenhausen as an assistant professor. She was granted associate professor status in 1977 and professor status in 1982.

Papenhausen has been chair of the Department of Nursing since 1996, serving previously as acting chair, associate chair, the departmental chair of Graduate Studies, and in other capacities. She has developed or modified and taught 30 courses, and has been active in academic advisement either at the undergraduate or graduate level since joining the Cal State L.A. faculty. She led her department to successful approval by the Board of Registered Nursing and accreditation by the National League of Nursing. In 1999, she was honored with the University’s first Faculty Alumni Award.

Papenhausen is president of the California Association of Colleges of Nursing, and the co-founding editor of Clinical Nurse Specialist: The Journal for Professional Nursing. She serves on the Advisory Board for Nurseweek, and as an advisory board member to the Departments of Nursing at Los Angeles Trade Technical Community College and Compton Community College. She lives in Long Beach, California.

Thanh V. Tran, director, Cal State L.A. School of Social Work
Dr. Thanh V. Tran is director of Cal State L.A.’s School of Social Work, and professor of social work. Prior to his appointment at Cal State L.A., Dr. Tran was director of the doctoral program at the School of Social Work at Boston College. He is widely regarded as a leading national scholar in the area of research on health behaviors and well-being among various ethnic minority populations. He has published extensively in gerontology, social work, social welfare, and psychology journals. Dr. Tran has a strong interest in minority aging and has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator of many training and research grants concerning the well-being of minority elderly populations. He has developed evaluation and other quantitative measurement instruments.

Jeanette C. Takamura, Edward R. Roybal Endowed Chair in Gerontology and Public Service
During Dr. Takamura’s tenure as Assistant Secretary, Congress reauthorized the Older Americans Act and established the National Family Caregiver Support Program. Under her leadership, federal Older Americans Act programs and services also received the largest funding increases since 1972.

Prior to her appointment as Assistant Secretary, Takamura was Deputy Director of Health at the state Department of Health in Hawaii. For eight years, she was Director of the Hawaii Executive Office on Aging. She is a member of the national board of the Older Women’s League and the Center for Strategic and International Studies Global Aging Commission, and has served on numerous international, national and state committees, boards and expert panels.

Takamura’s doctorate in social policy is from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. She received her master’s degree in social work and bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

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