Wilbur J. Cohen Collegiate Professor of Social Work Ruth E. Dunkle will be honored by the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work with a Career Achievement Award during the Gerontological Society of America Annual Scientific Meeting on November 16, 2018.
The award recognizes Dunkle for her outstanding leadership in social work education and aging. Dunkle’s career achievements include prominent aging research. Her current focus is two aspects of service delivery to older adults: (1) spousal caregiving and (2) the Village Model of care with the oldest old that examines future time perspectives and coping strategies in dealing with the changes in physical and psychological functioning. Her research also identifies relevant service delivery strategies for improving the quality of life. Dunkle has received more than $15 million of grant funding to support her work.
Dunkle is a highly interdisciplinary and synergetic academic professor. Her recent research projects include a collaborative project with psychiatry and public health to examine a service delivery dementia care network in a major university health care system, "Mothers of Adult Daughters with a Serious Mental Illness: The Experience of African Americans and Whites" and "A Historical Perspective of Social Service Delivery in Detroit in the Twentieth Century."
Dunkle is currently the president of the Society for Social Work and Research and is a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. She previously served as associate dean for faculty and academic affairs, interim dean and the chair of the University of Michigan’s Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Social Science.
Dunkle has authored seven books, written 26 books chapters and published 62 articles. Her publications have appeared in top social work and gerontology journals including The Journals of Gerontology, Journal of Women and Aging, Research in Gerontological Nursing, Journal of Family Social Work and Families in Society.
Since 1988, Dunkle has served as a project co-director of the National Institute on Aging training program, "Social Research Training on Applied Issues of Aging" and co-director of the Geriatric Fellowship Program.