James Scherrer

Dr. Scherrer is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Social Work of Dominican University. He first came to Dominican University in 2009. He has over 49 years of experience in providing child welfare services to poor and inner city youth. Throughout his career, Dr. Scherrer has conducted numerous workshops and training seminars on various aspects of child welfare, including residential treatment of children and adolescents, foster care, work with families, management in child welfare settings, and effective supervision. More recently he has been involved in developing a form of community-based, family-centered child welfare programs and was on a team that developed this model in Ethiopia. He is interested in international social work and is the Chair of the International Social Work Exchange, which conducts exchange programs for social workers in countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia. He was Chair of the Illinois Child Welfare Employee Licensure Board. He has 2 terms (4 years) as the Chair of the Child Welfare Network, sponsored by the National Association of Social Workers. He is currently the Principle Investigator in a 4-year federal grant that trains social work students to work with minoritized children, youth, and their families in underserved communities and who come into contact with child welfare services.