News Release

NIH awards $1.6 million grant to ASU School of Social Work

Grant and Award Announcement

Arizona State University

(June 5, 2002) The National Institute of Health has awarded Arizona State University associate professor Flavio Francisco Marsiglia in the School of Social Work, a five-year, $1.6 million grant to establish the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Consortium (SIRC).

The consortium is sponsored through a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) initiative supporting the development of research centers to strengthen and expand social work research on drug use. Marsiglia, SIRC director, will be expanding an already successful pilot drug prevention services program. ASU is one of just a handful of universities receiving the NIH/NADA Social Work Research Initiative award.

Marsiglia says the consortium will focus its interdisciplinary research on the historical cultures of the Southwest, emphasizing collaborative, community-based needs assessments and culturally appropriate interventions. The investigators hope to identify important social contexts in which prevention and services are delivered that increase the effectiveness of its drug use prevention program and services.

The consortium's goals are to increase the overall number of social work faculty and practitioners, interdisciplinary collaboration, and community partnerships, engaged in drug abuse research.

Leslie Leighninger, director, ASU School of Social Work said, "SIRC affords an excellent opportunity for the school to collaborate with the community in providing effective services, increase our knowledge on resiliency-focused research and to train graduate students in an important areas of social work research and practice."

The Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Consortium will team Marsiglia with Dr. Stephen Kulis, co-director, and Dr. Patricia Dustman, associate director, with other ASU faculty to form the infrastructure for the program's outreach and mentorship components. Additionally, graduate students from the departments of social work and sociology will form an integral part of the research team.

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For more information, contact the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Consortium at Arizona State University, School of Social Work, P.O. Box 873711, Tempe, Arizona, 85287-3711.

Source: Flavio Francisco Marsiglia, (480) 965-4699 (marsiglia@asu.edu)


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