News

CHENEY, Wash. - The College of Social & Behavioral Sciences and Social Work at Eastern Washington University is pleased to announce the appointment of Martha Raske, PhD, as professor and chair/director of the School of Social Work, effective July 1.

Raske was selected from an international pool of scholars. An experienced administrator, she is currently a professor and chair of the Social Work Department at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. Raske has been working in the field of social work for more than 29 years; seventeen have been at the higher education level.

"Dr. Martha Raske brings to Eastern an exceptional scope of experience that will benefit not only the program but also the university," said Vickie Shields, dean of the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences and Social Work. "Her vision for the School of Social Work is forward thinking and deeply informed by social work practice. She is a collaborative and compassionate leader who is the right person to lead one of the largest and most complex programs in the university."

Raske has a BA from MacMurray College, an MS in counseling from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a MSW and PhD from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She started in higher education in 1994, as an instructor at Southern Indiana University. In 1998, she was hired as an assistant professor in the Social Work Department at the University of Southern Indiana, received tenure and was promoted to associate professor in 2003, and was promoted to full professor in 2009.

Raske has taught extensively at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her teaching promotes the use of creative pedagogical techniques, cooperative learning with students, faculty, colleagues and the community. Raske best describes her own teaching effectiveness when she states, "Teaching social work is a collaborative relationship that engages instructor, student, university and community in the task of finding, integrating and applying past, and present, knowledge to remedy today's human problems."

Raske is an active and accomplished scholar whose work appears in the Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work, Rural Social Work, the Journal of Teaching in Social Work, and the Journal of Applied Sciences. In 2005, Raske co-authored a book entitled Ending Disability Discrimination: Strategies for Social Workers," which was adopted by the New Jersey Council for Developmental Disabilities for statewide use. Additionally, Dr. Raske has received several federal grants and is a member of the Council on Social Work Education, the National Association of Deans and Directors and the National Association of Social Workers.

####