On April 30, Todd Herrenkohl was installed as the Marion Elizabeth Blue Endowed Professor in Children and Families.
The Marion Elizabeth Blue Endowed Professorship in Children and Families is funded through the generosity of the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Family Foundation. The professorship is named in honor of Ann’s mother, Marion Elizabeth Blue. As a pediatric nurse, Ann Lurie saw firsthand the role social workers play in the support of children and families.
Herrenkohl’s installation address “Cross-System Collaboration and Engagement of the Public Health Model to Promote the Well-Being of Children and Families” highlighted his research on the ways a public health model deepens connections and work preventively to improve the lives of children and youth.
“The idea is to make systems more dynamic, interactive and responsive to the needs of families, and to align services to communities and empower communities to support the families within them.”
His research reflects a strong and unwavering commitment to advancing knowledge for programs and services for vulnerable groups. Trained as a prevention scientist with a commitment to social welfare, he is committed to bridging the gap between research and practice in prevention, and how it impacts policy.
Herrenkohl leads the Lehigh Longitudinal Study, which spans more than 40 years and has produced numerous articles on child maltreatment, the effects of stress and adversity across the lifecourse, and protective factors that buffer against early risk exposure.
Herrenkohl joined the School of Social Work in January, 2018 after nearly two decades on faculty of the School of Social Work at the University of Washington, where he was also co-director of the 3DL Partnership and an adjunct professor at the College of Education.
He holds a PhD in Social Welfare from University of Washington, an MSW from Simmons College in Boston and a BA in Social Relations from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.
During the installation ceremony, School of Social Work Dean Lynn Videka presented Herrenkohl with a beautiful hardwood chair, inscribed with University of Michigan seal. The presentation of a physical chair is part of a long tradition that honors this high rank of academic distinction and symbolizes the donor’s commitment.