Directory
About
Dr. Dana K. Harmon earned her PhD from the University of Alabama, her Masters of Social Work from Loyola University Chicago, and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alabama. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and an Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Graduate Scholar. Additionally, she is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker.
Dr. Harmon has several years of clinical practice working with individuals, couples, and families, co-leading various court-ordered groups, and doing mitigation work for capital murder cases. She has taught social work at the doctoral, master and bachelor levels through face-to-face and online instruction. Dr. Harmon has also been an accreditation specialist at the Council of Social Work Education (CSWE), in which she provided technical assistance and consultation to BSW and MSW programs. She has done research, published, and presented at local and national conferences particularly related to Black/African American males and families. With much scholarship focusing on pathology and risk and not strengths and positive potential, there has been a distorted view about this population. As a social work educator, Dr. Harmon views teaching as an opportunity to inspire, empower, and enhance student learning as a transformative experience. She embraces the idea that understanding systemic racism, discrimination and social justice, is multi-systemic and multi-dimensional, as well as beneficial, when teaching across the social work curriculum and for program development. As a social work practitioner, she believes each person has the strength and skills to search out and implement solutions for healing and growth, which can transform their life.
Program Areas
- Black/African American males
- Therapeutic interventions with Black/African Americans
- Psychosocial interventions with individuals, couples, and families
- Accreditation and curriculum development of social work programs
- Program design and evaluation
Research Interests
- Intrapersonal, interpersonal, and external factors that influence African American males’ marriage quality and commitment
- Racial identity and psychosocial development of Black/African Americans
- Police brutality
- Parental loss
- Human Rights
- Race Relations
- Social Justice
