College News
Community, Family, & Addiction Services: A New Department with a Strong History
The Department of Community, Family, and Addiction Studies (CFAS) is comprised of the CFAS undergraduate degree, the Addictive Disorders and Recovery Studies (ADRS) undergraduate minor and graduate certificate program, and masters' and doctoral degrees in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT). The Family Therapy Clinic (FTC) is housed within the CFAS department. It currently serves as a training clinic for doctoral and master's interns who provide services to the community. These services are provided on a sliding fee scale (filling an important local niche), and address a wide range of individual, couple, and family concerns.
Two centers currently under the auspices of COHS, the Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery and the Center for Prevention and Resiliency, are also affiliated with this new department.
The CFAS is uniquely poised to be at the forefront of family and addictions research and unique academic offerings at the B.S., Master's, and Ph.D. levels. The new department will provide a clear identity and increase campus and community visibility for the programs within it. The national respected CFAS faculty includes professionals unlike any other program in the country. They provide the MFT program with an emphasis in addiction that no other university in the country has. Numerous possibilities exist for the development of unique and desirable new programs at the masters' and PhD levels, most notably an ADRS track within the MFT doctoral degree.
Through the collaboration of two historically strong programs, ADRS and MFT, the CFAS undergraduate major was developed to meet the emerging employee needs of human service organizations. The CFAS undergraduate major has experienced significant growth in the past three years, now carrying 110 students. Because of this growth, and the desire to collaborate further to expand graduate program offerings, becoming a stand-alone department is the next logical step to ensure ongoing success.
| Department | Degrees | Courses | Faculty | Centers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community, Family, & Addiction Studies | B.S., Minor, M.S., Ph.D. | 20 undergraduate 27 graduate |
10 tenure track 3 full-time instructors (3 endowed chairs/professorships) |
Center for the Study of Addiction & Recovery and the Center for Adolescent Resiliency |
The new CFAS Department is in Room 271 of the Human Sciences Building. Visit their website at www.hs.ttu.edu/cfas.
Texas Tech's Personal Financial Planning Division Becomes a Department
The Division of Personal Financial Planning (PFP) in the College of Human Sciences at Texas Tech University will become a department effective fall 2012. Professor Vickie Hampton, who has led the PFP group since 2001, will serve as chairwoman of the new department.
Under Hampton's leadership, the division has become one of the most active programs of its kind. Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech is widely recognized as the premier PFP program, and was featured in November 2011 as one of the 10 standout financial planning programs by Financial Planning magazine. Notably, three of the other schools highlighted are led by graduates who earned their doctorates from Texas Tech's PFP program, and three more have hired Texas Tech graduates.
There are approximately 125 undergraduate students, 120 masters' students, and 35 doctoral students, and approximately 1,000 students per semester taking basic personal finance courses, "The growth and development of the Texas Tech PFP program over the past 10 years has been truly amazing. I am pleased that PFP's designation as a department has been approved. The program is already considered a top tier PFP program and attaining departmental status will enhance its visibility with potential student and faculty, donors and foundation, and the financial industry, "Dean Linda Hoover said. PFP also has an endowed chair, funded by The CH Foundation and more than $1 million in research funding.
The change from a division to a distinct Department within the College of Human Sciences represents much more than mere semantics. "Elevation to the Department of Personal Financial Planning provides the visibility and focus needed to enhance quality growth and research productivity," Hampton said. "We can better meet the needs of our students and do so with greater administrative efficiency than is possible in the current organizational structure."
The mission of the department is to educate students to the highest standards of excellence; foster intellectual, ethical and personal development; and generate the highest quality of meaningful research.
The PFP department's priorities will include maintaining national recognition and the highest quality faculty, while preparing students to become articulate leaders, ethical decision-makers and competent scholars in the field of Personal Financial Planning.
"We are educating the next generation of financial planning professionals," Hampton said.
Faculty & Staff News
Sandra Huston, Associate Professor in Personal Financial Planning has received the Affairs Best Article Award for 2012 for the Measuring Financial Literacy Article, which appeared in the Summer 20120 issue of the Journal of Consumer Affairs. This award is sponsored by the American Council and Consumer Interests and is determined by a vote of the JCA Editorial Board.
Dr. Sterling Shumway and Dr. Thomas Kimball recently published a book entitled, Achieving Lasting Recovery is Possible! The book is to be released April 3, 2012. Dr. Shumway and Dr. Kimball's vision for this book is, helping individuals, families, and professionals promote and achieve lasting recovery! We accomplished this vision through our therapy practice and recovery research which informs our scholarly publications, books, multi-family work, supervision and training/speaking engagements.
Personal Financial Planning program sent a group of four students (Tyler Boyce, Nathan Davis, Jacob Storey and Paulina Veloz) to the Financial services national Industry Issues Competition, on January 22 and 23rd. The group won second place in the competition. The competition represents an excellent way for students to research a timely topic with the opportunity to earn scholarship funds for their schools. Scholarship awards were made to the universities of the finalist teams based on their combined paper and oral presentations.
Personal Financial Planning celebrated its 25th Anniversary with the Opportunity Days on Wednesday, February 22, 2012. Opportunity Days consisted of career interviews, What Not to Wear faculty fashion show, Free CFP continuing education sessions and closed with the Retirement Management Analyst Certification Seminar..
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Dr. Russell N. James III (Department of Personal Financial Planning) and Dr. Michael W. O'Boyle (Department of Human Development and family Studies) provide a fascinating look into how the brain works when making charitable gifts. Their article, Charitable Estate Planning as Visualized Autobiography: An fMRI Study of Neural Correlation can be found in the February issue of Wills, Trusts, & Estates Prof Blog.
Texas Tech Marriage and Family Relations Professor Nicole Springer visited Carillon Senior Life-care Tuesday, February 14, 2012 to talk about the longevity in married relations with A.W. and Virginia Lott who have been married for 76 years. Springer says there is no single secret to a long marriage, but she finds that a good predictor is when couples keep the positive and negative comments and interactions in an appropriate ratio.
Dr. Sara Smock was elected to serve on the Solution- Focused Brief Therapy Association board. Here appointments begin January 2012.