Founders
Shanti K. Khinduka is the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. As dean of its School of Social Work from 1974-2004, he was instrumental in establishing several path-breaking centers for research and training. He also fashioned a curriculum emphasizing evidence-based practice, economic and social development, and capacity building for individuals and communities. Khinduka has published worldwide on social action, social work education, community and social development, globalization, international social welfare, and ethnic conflict. An editor of three books, he founded the Journal of Social Service Research in 1977 and chaired its editorial board until 2004. He is one of the founders of the St. Louis Group and of the International Consortium for Social Development, and served as the president of the latter organization from 2001-2005. He has led or served on several key committees of the major social work organizations in the United States.
Dr. Arthur Katz, former dean of the KU School of Social Welfare from 1968 to 1974 and acting dean from 1976 to 1977, has passed away at the age of 95. Dr. Katz was the founding dean of the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas. Prior to his arrival, the social work degree was housed as a department in the College of Liberal Arts and Science and offices were located in Blake Hall. According to the book “Transitions – The Emergence, Growth, and Development of the School of Social Welfare” by Shirley Patterson and Ben Zimmerman as editors, “Dr. Katz made it clear that it was his expectation that there would be support for autonomous school status for the Social Work Department.” And within his first year of his tenure, he was able to make this true. He decided to call us the School of Social Welfare instead of the School of Social Work, since he felt social welfare was a broader term and designated policy and social reform implications instead of the narrower term of social work. With the School status, he was momentous in securing Twente Hall and Watkins Home as the two buildings to house the School on campus. After his tenure at KU, he later became executive director of the Council on Social Work Education and retired from faculty in 1986.
Shanti K. Khinduka is the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. As dean of its School of Social Work from 1974-2004, he was instrumental in establishing several path-breaking centers for research and training. He also fashioned a curriculum emphasizing evidence-based practice, economic and social development, and capacity building for individuals and communities. Khinduka has published worldwide on social action, social work education, community and social development, globalization, international social welfare, and ethnic conflict. An editor of three books, he founded the Journal of Social Service Research in 1977 and chaired its editorial board until 2004. He is one of the founders of the St. Louis Group and of the International Consortium for Social Development, and served as the president of the latter organization from 2001-2005. He has led or served on several key committees of the major social work organizations in the United States.