The Handbook of Community Practice

Marie Weil is Berg-Beach Professor of Community Practice and former Associate Dean at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Social Work, where she teaches community practice, policy practice and theory for social work intervention. She has led state-wide research and community-based planning and implementation initiatives in family support and family preservation and for adolescent family life programs, as well as consulting and conducting program evaluations for small nonprofits. Previously, she taught at the University of Southern California. She is the author or coauthor of thirteen books primarily focused on community practice; the author or coauthor of over thirty chapters related to community practice, feminist practice, and empowerment practice and service development for families and children; and more than 42 articles and monographs. She began her career working in community development in settlement houses in Philadelphia. She has served as Deputy Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity of Delaware and as Planning Director of the Wilmington Housing Authority. She is a founding member of the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA) and was the Founding Editor of the Journal of Community Practice, producing the first ten volumes. She is a recipient of ACOSA's Career Achievement Award. Michael Reisch is the Daniel Thursz Distinguished Professor of Social Justice at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Social Work. A former Woodrow Wilson Fellow and Fulbright Scholar, he has held faculty and administrative positions at the University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, San Francisco State University and the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and been a visiting professor at universities in Europe, Asia, and Australia, . He has also directed national, state, and local policy advocacy organizations, political campaigns, social service agencies, and professional organizations. Reisch is the author, editor and co-editor of over 15 books and monographs and has written over 400 articles, book chapters, and conference papers. His work has been translated into ten languages. He is currently a SAGE advisor and series editor for Social Work in the New Century. Mary Ohmer has over twenty years of experience working in community organizing and development around the country with national and local nonprofit and community based organizations, foundations, and government. Dr. Ohmer has taught consensus organizing approaches as part of macro practice and community organizing social work courses. She received her Ph.D. in social work from the University of Pittsburgh in August 2004, and she is currently an assistant professor at the School of Social Work at Georgia State University. Dr. Ohmer is also currently working with the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta to help them develop and implement an evaluation of the community training.