John Brekke, associate dean of research at the USC School of Social Work, has been appointed to the board of directors of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, the first national society honoring excellence in the research and practice of social work.

Brekke, who is also the Frances G. Larson Professor of Social Work Research, was inducted as a fellow of the organization in 2011. He was one of 12 social work scholars recognized for their experience leading more than 200 research studies with local, state or federal funding from scores of government agencies and private foundations.

“John Brekke's national distinction in leading the dialogue on science, social work and translational research is now being recognized at the highest levels of our profession,” said Marilyn Flynn, dean of the School of Social Work. “We are enormously proud of his conceptual contributions, the widespread respect he enjoys and his very real impact on evidence-based research.”

The academy recognizes distinguished academics and practitioners for high-impact work that advances social welfare. Members participate in national discussions of social policy by serving as experts before Congress and other agencies charged with advancing the public good.

Brekke is among the leaders of the Los Angeles Basin Clinical and Translational Science Institute, a USC health research center emphasizing the mental and physical well-being of people living in densely populated urban areas. The institute was awarded a prestigious five-year, $56.8 million Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Institutes of Health to connect interdisciplinary, investigative teams of scientists to clinical and community researchers and practitioners with a goal of accelerating the translation of scientific discoveries into practice.

Brekke has also received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, a competitive, national funding program focused on addressing challenging health policy issues. Additionally, he was appointed to the advisory board of the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics, an interdisciplinary group designed to foster collaborative research and analysis among scholars and policymakers at the USC Gould School of Law.

Since 1989, Brekke has been the principal investigator on five longitudinal studies funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and one funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This work has focused on the improvement of community-based services for individuals diagnosed with severe mental illness. He is currently a principal investigator on three NIMH grants, including a project that seeks to speed the use of evidence-based practices into community-based treatment for individuals with schizophrenia and another that examines the transformation of community-based mental health services at the levels of policy implementation, organizational change and consumer outcomes.