My current position is professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of Vermont (UVM). I joined the department in 1991 and served as its first permanent Chair until 1998.
Before coming to UVM, I held faculty appointments in the School of Social Work at Florida State University and in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. Other academic appointments include Fulbright professor at the University of Lapland (Finland), visiting scholar at the University of Newcastle (Australia) and external examiner for the University of Hong Kong. My primary academic interest is in the application of social constructionist ideas to social work, particularly in the areas of inquiry, ethics, education and international collaboration. In addition to co-editing two books, I have published numerous articles and book chapters on topics ranging from experimental research (early in my career) to social construction. As Editor-in-Chief of Social Work (1998 through 2001), I wrote 20 editorial essays many of which have been widely cited and used in social work education. Currently, I am co-editing (with Dennis Saleebey) a book of essays on postmodern expressions of social work (to be published by the Council on Social Work Education). In 2004 I was awarded a Ph.D (Honoris Causa) from the University of Lapland, Finland.