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Diana Garland

Diana Garland

Dean, Baylor School of Social Work
Phone: 254-710-6223
E-mail: Diana_Garland@baylor.edu

"I have spent my career exploring social work as a vocation for church leadership. My practice experience has been in church-related settings--a Christian counseling center, a Baptist child and family services agency, and a Catholic residential treatment home for abused adolescent girls. In those settings, I wondered what would happen if social workers looked at the church as more than a funding source to support their work. What if we equipped congregations to support and strengthen families, to build communities of care and advocacy for the most vulnerable members of our communities? That wondering has turned into my life's work.

"For the past 30 years, I have had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the development of congregation's family and community ministries. Now I love watching our alumni take paths beyond what I ever dreamed to lead congregations to be transformational agents in the lives of children, families, and communities, not just locally but all over the world. I laugh a lot these days in sheer amazement -- in those early days, I could never have imagined a school like Baylor Social Work, charting new paths for the church and her work in the world."


Education

Ph.D., University of Louisville
M.S.S.W., University of Louisville
B.A., University of Louisville
Full Curriculum Vita

Professional Credentials

Diplomate in Clinical Social Work, National Association of Social Workers The Academy of Certified Social Workers, Licensed Master Social Worker, Advanced Clinical Practitioner, Texas

Selected Publications

  • Garland, D.R., Myers, D. M., & Wolfer, T. A. (2008). Social work with religious volunteers: Activating and sustaining community involvement. Social Work, 53(3), 255-265.
  • Garland, D.R., Sherr, M., Dennison, A., & Singletary, J. (2008). Who cares for the children? Family and Community Ministries: Empowering Through Faith, 22(1), 6-16.
  • Garland, Diana (2008). Christian social services. Encyclopedia of Social Work. Washington, D.C.: National Association of Social Workers.
  • Sherr, Michael E., Garland, Diana, & Wolfer, Terry. (2007). The role of community service in the faith development of adolescents. The Journal of Youth Ministry, 6(1), 43-54.
  • Garland, David E., and Garland, Diana R. (2007). Flawed families of the Bible: How God's grace works through imperfect relationships. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press.
  • Garland, Diana (2003). Sacred stories of ordinary families. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
  • Garland, Diana (1999). Family ministry: A comprehensive guide. InterVarsity Press.
  • Garland, Diana R. (2006). When wolves wear shepherds' clothing: Helping women survive clergy sexual abuse. Social Work and Christianity 33 (1), 1-35

Research Interests

  • Congregational Social Work
  • Family Ministry
  • Families in Crisis; Family Life Education
  • Power: Appropriate Use and Abuse
  • Community-based Child Welfare Services
  • Clergy Sexual Misconduct
  • Religiously Affiliated Organizations

Background

Diana R. Garland, Ph.D, M.S.S.W., is inaugural Dean of the School of Social Work, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, where she has served on the faculty since 1997. She previously served as Professor of Social Work at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, where she was on the faculty for seventeen years and was Dean of the Carver School of Church Social Work and Director of the Center for Family Ministries. Prior to teaching, she was administrative director of a pastoral counseling center.

She is author, co-author, or editor of 18 books. The most recent are Inside Out Families: Living the Faith Together (Baylor Press 2010), Flawed Families of the Bible: How God Works through Imperfect Relationships (co-authored with David Garland, Brazos Books, 2007) and Sacred Stories of Ordinary Families: Living the Faith Everyday (Jossey-Bass, Inc., 2003). Her book Family Ministry: A Comprehensive Guide (InterVarsity Press) was winner of the 2000 Book of the Year Award of the Academy of Parish Clergy at Princeton Seminary. Her family life courses Parenting by Grace and Covenant Marriage sold more than a million copies.

Dr. Garland has published more than 100 professional articles and book chapters. She has raised more than $7 million in research and program grants since coming to Baylor in 1997, from organizations such as Lilly Endowment, Inc, Pew Charitable Trusts, Inc., the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. She is known for her leadership with congregations and religious organizations in family and community ministry and for her research on the faith life of families.

She has been married to Dr. David Garland for 40 years. He is Dean of George W. Truett Theological Seminary. They are the parents of Sarah (a journalist), her husband Matthew (an author), John (a Mennonite pastor and a middle school science teacher), and his wife Abby (a high school history teacher), and proud grandparents of Aurora Grace.