Enola Proctor

Enola Proctor, PhD, has spent her academic career focused on one central question: How can we ensure the highest quality of care for all individuals in need? Her work is hugely important in speeding the adoption and delivery of critical medical care and in reducing disparities in health care.

Three beloved longtime Brown School faculty — representing 102 years of scholarship, research and collaboration — were elevated to new positions within the faculty April 2 during an installation ceremony in Brown Lounge.

Enola K. Proctor, PhD, the Frank J. Bruno Professor of Social Work Research and associate dean for faculty at the Brown School, has been named director of the Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) initiative at the Institute for Public Health.

It can take decades for research discoveries to make their way into public health settings. The emerging field of dissemination and implementation (D&I) research seeks to narrow the gap between evidence-based research and routine practice. To help propel this crucial field forward, leading D&I scholars and researchers at Washington Univeristy have contributed to Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health: Translating Science to Practice, a new book published by Oxford University Press.

When thinking about the well-being of older adults, most people focus on medical care, but mental health care is a growing, pressing concern for older adults and their families. “At least one in five older adults suffer from a mental disorder and experts in geriatric mental health anticipate an ‘unprecedented explosion’ of older adults with disabling mental disorder,” says Enola K. Proctor, Ph.D., mental health care expert and professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. “While older adults may receive adequate medical and psychiatric care, they rarely receive the care necessary to deal with the general ‘problems with living,’ or social stresses. These psychosocial problems, such as isolation and family stress, may exacerbate psychiatric problems, depression in particular, and contribute to functional decline.”

The Center for Mental Health Services Research (CMHSR) in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work has received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to become the nation’s first Advanced Center for Interventions and Services Research at a school of social work. CMHSR will celebrate its new designation and expanded research agenda during an opening and reception from 1:30-3 p.m. Jan. 11 in the Brown Hall Lounge. Visitors can hear about the center’s current and future research from CMHSR leaders. For more information about the center or the open house, call the center at 935-5687 or go online to gwbweb.wustl.edu/users/cmhsr.

The Center for Mental Health Services Research in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work will celebrate its new designation Jan. 11.

LawlorEdward F. Lawlor, Ph.D., dean of the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, will become dean of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work (GWB) on July 1, 2004, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Lawlor will succeed Shanti K. Khinduka, Ph.D., who last year announced his intention to retire as dean on June 30, 2004.