Posted 8-23-01
CLEVELAND -- Lenore A. Kola, a 26-year faculty member at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, will become dean of graduate studies at Case Western Reserve University this fall. She will devote half of her time to the graduate studies post, and the remainder to continuing her work on the MSASS faculty.
"Dr. Kola's knowledge and experience as an academic leader, her enthusiasm, and her understanding of graduate student issues make her an ideal person for this position," said Interim Provost Lynn Singer. "One key component of her responsibilities will be to lead an assessment of the future direction of the School of Graduate Studies, in conjunction with the Faculty Senate Committee on Graduate Studies."
The School of Graduate Studies is the unit at CWRU which offers graduate programs in the humanities and social sciences, biological and physical sciences, engineering, and selected disciplines related to professional fields.
"I welcome the opportunity to bring my diverse background and experience in both the community and academia to the challenge of continiuing to make the office of graduate studies responsive to both the needs of the students and the faculty in facilitating the educational process," Kola said.
A native Clevelander, Kola joined MSASS in 1975 as an assistant professor of social work, and she became a tenured associate professor in 1981. Her academic specialty is the field of substance abuse, and she teaches courses in substance abuse policy and interventions.
Throughout her MSASS career, Kola has been project director for 12 federal and state training and research grants that have involved training students in the master's and doctoral programs at MSASS, as well as faculty development in the areas of alcohol and other drug abuse.
For part of 1999 and 2000, Kola was the school's acting assistant dean for student administration and academic support. This department's duties cover a wide range of student affairs issues, including recruitment, enrollment, matriculation, graduation, and career counseling. "This experience proved to be a very happy and productive one for me, both personally and professionally," Kola said.
Kola has held numerous other academic leadership roles at MSASS. This includes directing the process of reaccredidation from the Council on Social Work Education, producing the self-study report for the accreditation process, and chairing the school's Faculty Governance Committee, Curriculum Committee, and Research Sequence.
She also initiated and developed the school's Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Concentration, then chaired this program for 25 years. Currently Kola is chairing the MSASS Committee on Students.
In addition to her other academic and administrative activities, Kola has served since 2000 as co-director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Illness (SAMI) Best Practices Training and Research Center, a partnership between the Cuyahoga Community Mental Health Research Institute based jointly at MSASS and the School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry.
The Ohio Department of Mental Health (ODMH) funds the center, which is directed toward a variety of tasks related to the development and implementation of evidence-based practice in the area of dual diagnosis (substance abuse and mental illness). Kola also is the project director for a residency training program for social work students in the area of dual diagnosis.
Kola was a member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Task Force which developed teaching modules in substance abuse. She has edited the association's award-winning newsletter, Issues of Substance.
She also was founding chair of the NASW Section on Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs. At the 2000 NASW annual meeting in Baltimore, Kola received an award from the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs Section in appreciation of her pioneering efforts in the establishment and leadership of the section.
She received her A.B. cum laude in psychology from Ohio University, and earned both her A.M. in psychology and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Boston University. She was a clinical psychology intern at Veterans Administration hospitals in Boston and Brockton, Massachusetts, from 1964-68. Kola credits her experience in the Division of Alcoholism, Department of Public Health in Boston as shaping her interest in substance abuse.
Kola is a member of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse, Council on Social Work Education, NASW, and the American Medical Society on Alcoholism's National Council on Alcoholism.
