Hal A. Lawson is Professor of Educational Administration and Policy Studies and also Professor of Social Welfare. This joint appointment reflects his interests in partnerships among schools, families, community agencies, neighborhood organizations, governments, businesses, and higher education institutions. Partnerships formed to meet the needs of vulnerable populations and their communities and ones involving laypersons’ leadership and expertise, comprise a special priority. These interests span nearly 40 years of teaching, research, consultation, and service in 5 universities in the United States and Canada.
Lawson regularly serves as a consultant, trainer, evaluator, and capacity-builder for schools, community health and social service agencies, child welfare organizations, universities, and state departments of education. Thanks to support from governments and charitable foundations, he and his colleagues have been able to develop and evaluate timely innovations such as school-linked health and social services integrated with school improvement, school-based and –linked parent and family resource centers, youth-led social services, youth-led school-community partnerships, and P-16 partnerships and planning councils.
Lawson is a Leadership Associate in the National Network for Educational Renewal (founded by John Goodlad). He serves on the International Advisory Board for the National Institute for Education and Youth Care in the Netherlands and also on the National Advisory Board for the US National Center for Mental Health in Schools. His international experience includes work in Indonesia, Brazil, Iran, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Denmark, England, Belgium, Australia, Germany, Romania, and Canada.
Lawson received his undergraduate degree (B.A.) at Oberlin College. His graduate degrees (M.A. & Ph.D.) are from the University of Michigan.
Recent Publications of Hal A. Lawson
Lawson, H. (2009). A research and development framework for the school dropout problem. Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 2(1), 56-67.
Lawson, H. (2009). An appreciation and a selective enhancement of the developing model for
university-assisted community schools. Universities and Community Schools, 4.
Lawson, H. (2009). Collaborative practice. In T. Mizrahi & L. Davis, (Eds.), The encyclopedia
of social work (pp. 341-346). New York: Oxford University Press.
Anderson-Butcher, D., Lawson, H., et al., (2008) Community collaboration to improve schools:
Introducing a new model from Ohio. Children and Schools. 30(3), 161-172.
Lawson, H. et al., (2007). Deriving theories of change from successful community development
partnerships for youths: Implications for school improvement. American Journal of
Education, 114 (November), 1-40.
Lawson, H. & Anderson-Butcher, D. (2007). Launching comprehensive educational reform for
the new century workforce: Developing knowledge, lessons learned, and policy
recommendations from five local P-16 councils in Ohio. Cincinnati, OH:
KnowledgeWorks Foundation.
Lawson, H. (2004). 2004). The logic of collaboration in education and the human services. The
Journal of Interprofessional Care. 18, 225-237.
