Karen Ford , DSW
Associate Professor, Department of Social Work
College of Integrated Science and Technology
Office: Health and Human Services Building 2145
Phone: 540-568-6975
Email: fordka@jmu.edu
Karen Ford joined the JMU Social Work faculty in 1996 coming from management and administration in the juvenile justice arena. She has worked in wilderness based treatment programs as well as at the institutional, regional and community levels of juvenile corrections. Karen also taught middle school social studies for a few years.
Her undergraduate degree is in History & Sociology from Emory & Henry College, Emory, Virginia. She received her MSW from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA with a concentration in planning and administration. Howard University School of Social Work in Washington, D.C. awarded her a DSW in Policy Studies.
Karen loves teaching policy, social welfare history, macro practice and anything remotely political. She has developed courses in Non-profit management, International Social Work and Multicultural Practice. She has just developed a blackboard-based course on Immigration being taught at JMU & INHOLLAND University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Karen manages the JMU/INHOLLAND Social Work exchange program. Karen Teaches Human Services in the Caribbean in odd years with the field portion taking in the Commonwealth of Dominica over Spring Break. She is the JMU liaison for Influencing State Policy and takes students to Richmond and Washington regularly.
Karen is active in the community serving on Office on Children and Youth board, on the NAACP board and several Healthy Community Council committees. Her research interests are in internationalizing social work education, policy education, service learning and social work and social welfare history.
When not being a social worker she enjoys backpacking, paddling and skiing with her family.
