Keynote Address

Military Family Resiliency and Community Capacity Building in the Shadows of War: Implications for Policy and Practice

Gary Bowen, Ph.D., Kenan Distinguished Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Brief Synopsis: In the context of prevalence estimates in post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and depression among U.S. troops returning from deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dr. Bowen will discuss the role of formal and informal support systems in helping troops and their families achieve resiliency.

Gary Bowen , this year’s Keynote Speaker, is Kenan Distinguished Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is a Spencer Program Faculty Member, Spencer Foundation Education Policy Research Training Program, at Duke University.

Dr. Bowen has extensive experience in working with all branches of the military services, and he has visited more than 100 installations worldwide during the past 30 years in the context of consulting with military policymakers, researchers, and practitioners across a range of mental health and social service issues. His sponsors have included the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Defense Manpower and Data Center, the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center, the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, the Air Force Office of the Chief of Chaplains, the Air Force Office of Family Matters, the U.S. Air Force Family Advocacy Division, and the U.S. Marine Corps Community Services. Dr. Bowen is currently initiating work with the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Development Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services to contribute to the Division’s efforts to increase its outreach services and support to the civilian spouses of military members currently serving in the North Carolina National Guard, as well as other North Carolina citizens serving in the Reserve Components of the United States Military. The extension of primary and secondary prevention services and supports to this population is an important component of the Division’s expanded response to the mental health service needs of veterans and their families.

Dr. Bowen served earlier (1998 to 2004) as senior social work consultant to Colonel John Nelson, Chief, Family Advocacy Office, Office of the Surgeon General, United States Air Force. In 1999, Dr. Bowen conducted a landmark study of community life in the Air Force, Communities in Blue for the 21 st Century, which was anchored in his work with the U.S. Army Research Institute. The results of this study served as the basis for the reorganization of prevention services in the U.S. Air Force. Integrated Delivery Teams (IDS) at all Air Force bases worldwide have received training in community capacity building, which was based on a model developed by Dr. Bowen and colleagues. Dr. Bowen is also co-author of the Families-In-Blue series (1979-1981) that led to the development of Family Support Centers in the U.S. Air Force. In 1998-99, Dr. Bowen served as an expert consultant for the U.S. General Accounting Office on the Quality of Military Life. In 2004, he served as a panel presenter in a Congressional Briefing on Capital Hill: “Military Families: Developing and Sustaining Resilience.” Dr. Bowen currently serves as a senior consultant to the Community Support Division, Airman and Family Readiness Policy, U.S. Air Force. Dr. Bowen is also a member of the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Veteran’s Affairs Joint Task Force.

Dr. Bowen has published extensively on the nature of the work and family interface in the U.S. Military, including the now classic volume, The Organization Family: Work and Family Linkages in the U.S. Military (Praeger Press), which he co-edited in 1989 with Dr. Dennis Orthner. His military-related publications have appeared in the Journal of Marriage and Family, Family Relations, Armed Forces & Society, Journal of Community Practice, and the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma, and he has been a featured guest on National Public Radio (Tavis Smiley Show) discussing the Iraq War, One year later: The view from soldiers’ families.

His honors include the National Graduate Student of the Year Award in 1981 from the National Council of Family Relations and an Alumni Pacesetter Award in 1998 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s School of Environmental Sciences “for actively making a difference in the lives of others and the world around them.” In 2001, he was identified as a National Council on Family Relations Fellow for his enduring contributions to the field of family studies through a career of teaching, scholarship, outreach, professional service and leadership; in 1983, he was identified as a Fellow, Armed Forces and Society. Dr. Bowen received the “Most Innovative Professor Award” in 2002 from the Social Work Student Organization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; in 2005, 2006 and 2007, he received the Dean’s Recognition of Teaching Excellence, which recognizes faculty members whose student teaching evaluation scores consistently remain among the highest of the faculty. Dr. Bowen serves as a member of the distinguished Research Council for America’s Promise, and he is President-Elect of the National Council on Family Relations.

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