Zayas named Khinduka distinguished professor

By Jessica N. Roberts

Luis H. Zayas, Ph.D., has been appointed the inaugural Shanti K. Khinduka Distinguished Professor of Social Work, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced in a recent letter to the George Warren Brown School of Social Work community.

Luis Zayas

This distinguished professorship in honor of Khinduka has been established by an anonymous donor. Khinduka, Ph.D., the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor, has served as professor and dean of GWB since 1974.

Zayas, a licensed clinical psychologist and certified social worker, comes to GWB from the Graduate School of Social Service at Fordham University. "I am grateful that Professor Zayas has made the commitment to join us here at Washington University," Wrighton said. "This new professorship will enable us to honor and celebrate two great members of our community and two distinguished leaders in social work education and research."

In addition to his work as a professor, Zayas served as director and principal investigator for the Center for Hispanic Mental Health Research, a National Institute of Mental Health-funded social work research development center created to conduct research on Hispanic mental-health needs, service delivery and treatment approaches and to train faculty researchers.

He also was the director of Predoctoral Research Training in Minority Mental Health, a National Institute of Mental Health National Research Service Award to train doctoral students in minority health research.

Zayas earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Manhattan College. He earned master's degrees in social work and developmental psychology and a doctorate in developmental psychology from Columbia University.

Zayas' scholarship focuses on child socialization and parent-child interaction, child and adolescent mental-health and treatment, ethno-racial minority mental health and intervention research.

During his more than 25 years in the fields of social work and psychology, Zayas has conducted individual and family therapy in child and adolescent psychiatric clinics and primary care clinics. Zayas has applied his experience to the study of child and adolescent mental health, parent-child relations, parents' child-rearing behavior, Hispanic and minority mental health, family functioning, and alcohol use among minority men.

In addition to his numerous awards and research grants, Zayas is an editorial board member for the Journal of Social Service Research and is the author of various chapters and journal articles related to his research.

Zayas is a fellow of the American Orthopsychia-tric Association and a member of the American Psychological Association, the American Public Health Association, the Association of Hispanic Mental Health Professionals, the National Association of Social Workers, the Society for Social Work and Research and the Society for Research in Child Development.

During Khinduka's tenure, one of the longest for a social work dean and the longest of a dean currently serving the University, the school has risen to one of the top-ranked institutions of social work in the country and has become a model for cutting-edge research and innovative curriculum.

"Dean Khinduka has led the school with wisdom, creativity, sensitivity and dedication for more than one-third the life of the school," Wrighton said. "He has contributed to developing the finest school of social work in the world, and this stems in large measure from having recruited the finest faculty. Thus, a professorship in honor of Dean Khinduka is most fitting. I am deeply grateful to our generous and thoughtful donor for such a meaningful contribution."

A formal installation ceremony for Zayas will take place this fall.