NEWS

Tonya Westbrook

Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2007

Tonya Westbrook, a recent doctoral graduate in social work, addressed a significant gap in social work knowledge in her dissertation, Initial Development and Validation of the Child Welfare Organizational Structure Inventory. It defined and measured organizational culture as an important multi-dimensional construct that permeates child welfare practice. Westbrook used existing, professionally endorsed guidelines and recommended practices as well as a sophisticated statistical analysis to explorethe initial validity and reliability characteristics of this new measure. Her work has important implications for addressing employee retention and reducing turnover.