Allen Zweben and Dan Herman of Mailman School of Public Health co-chaired the NIH Summer Institute on Behavioral and Social Intervention Research in Washington, D.C. on July 18-22, 2005. The overall goal of the NIH Summer Institute was to address essential conceptual, methodological and practical issues involved in planning and carrying out research on psychosocial interventions. The Institute was attended by 41 junior investigators many of whom are faculty from various schools of social work around the country. As a result of their attendance in the Institute, participants were expected to develop NIH grant applications for research in this area. Toward this end participants worked on pilot studies throughout the week of the conference. These pilot studies were expected to eventually lead to an NIH grant application for behavioral and social intervention research.
Faculty were comprised of established investigators from social work and related disciplines. Presenters included Drs. Nabila El-Bassel of CUSSW, Jon Morgenstern of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia, Mark Fraser of the School of Social Work at University of North Carolina, Phyllis Solomon of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work, Susan Rose and Michael Brondino of the Center for Addition and Behavioral Health Research at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Howard Bloom of MDRC, Inc. and David Abrams of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. Drs. Zweben and Herman also presented.
The Institute received high praise from participants and NIH staff. Consequently, Drs. Zweben and Herman have been invited to give an encore workshop at the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR) conference in San Antonio in January 2006.