Jerry L. Johnson, Ph.D is a renowned lecturer, consultant and author in the areas of social work, substance abuse prevention and treatment, co-occurring disorders, community development, and political social work. He is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dr. Johnson received his MSW from Grand Valley State University and his Ph.D in Sociology from Western Michigan University.
Dr. Johnson has more than 20 years of clinical, administrative, and consultancy experience in social work. He has worked as a family therapist, consultant, program administrator, and trainer, specializing in adolescents, families, substance abuse treatment and persons with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. He has developed substance abuse prevention and treatment programs in Michigan, the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Belarus. In 2000, he taught substance abuse practice to professors at the inaugural National Meeting of Social Work Professors in Shanghai, China.
Dr. Johnson is the recipient of two Fulbright Scholarship awards to Albania in 1998-99 and 2000-01. His work included helping to develop the School of Social Work at Tirana University in the Capital City of Albania, where he also taught classes. In 1997 he witnessed first-hand the fall of the Albanian Government in the wake of pyramid scandals. During a follow-up visit, he had the exclusive opportunity to privately interview former Albanian President, Sali Berisha, who served during the 1997 chaos. In 1995 he served as a community development consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to work with the leaders of the country of Armenia to develop a nationwide substance abuse prevention program and a plan for implementation. In 2002 Dr. Johnson served as a research consultant for the Academy for Educational Development (AED) traveling to Armenia to perform a needs assessment regarding the future of the social work profession in Armenia. His report led to a three-year funding initiative by USAID to train social work professionals across the Republic of Armenia.
In addition to his teaching and consulting activities, Dr. Johnson has authored several books, was a contributing writer in a monthly family magazine, and has published articles in several professional journals. His first book, Crossing Borders - Confronting History: Intercultural Adjustment in a Post-Cold War World was published in 2000 by Rowan and Littlefield. In 2004, Wadsworth Brooks/Cole published his second book, Fundamentals of Substance Abuse Practice, a popular college textbook. Dr. Johnson and his collegue, Dr. George Grant, Jr., Ph.D., recently completed eight of fourteen texts in the Allyn & Bacon Casebook Series published in 2005. The remaining six books in the Casebook Series are scheduled for publication in 2006. Dr. Johnson is also working on two more textbooks; Advanced Social Work Practice scheduled for publication in 2006 by Allyn and Bacon, and Cultural Competence in Substance Abuse Treatment scheduled for publication in 2007 by Brooks/Cole. He is also working on his first true crime novel.
