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Co-Editors Daniel Whitaker and Kera Nicholson
October 2015
Vol. 7, Issue 

Honoring Dr. Mark Chaffin

It is with our deepest regret and sorrow that we share the recent loss of our dear friend and colleague, Dr. Mark Chaffin. Mark came to the Center for Healthy Development at Georgia State University as a Professor in Health Promotion and Behavior for the School of Public Health one year ago. He dedicated his professional life to ameliorating child maltreatment and helping children and families through research and practice.

Mark's professional contributions span decades and will reach far beyond his time. To honor him we are devoting this newsletter to highlighting the profound impact he had on the field and all he met. Our thoughts continue to be with his family that he spoke of often and lovingly. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and daughter, Roxanne. 

The National SafeCare Training and Research Center (NSTRC) owes tremendous gratitude to Mark, whose work facilitated the spread of SafeCare specifically, and evidence-based practices for child maltreatment more generally. Although SafeCare was one of many programs Mark researched, his impact on our program has been profound. Mark and his colleagues at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center were the first to implement SafeCare on a broad scale, working with John Lutzker to do so. The implementation of SafeCare in Oklahoma  became one of the largest and most important randomized trials conducted in the field of child maltreatment to date. Mark's research has served as a cornerstone to the SafeCare evidence base, and was key in securing many sources of funding for SafeCare replication, enabling SafeCare to spread nationally and internationally. Mark was an honest broker of intervention programs. He didn't care so much about any particular program, including SafeCare. He cared about helping children and using whatever program was indicated by the data. Having Mark's endorsement was a bit like achieving a recommendation from Consumer Reports--unbiased and in the best interest of the consumer (the family).
Before joining the faculty at GSU, Dr. Chaffin worked for 17 years as a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, where he directed research for the Section of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and co-directed the Center on Child Abuse and NeglectPrior, he was on faculty at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He was a counseling psychologist by training and completed a fellowship in pediatric psychology and pediatric hematology-oncology before beginning his academic career. His practice, research, and publications focused primarily on the development, adaptation, and implementation of evidence-based service models in youth-serving prevention and social services systems, including child welfare, juvenile justice, and early childhood developmental disabilities systems. Dr. Chaffin worked nationally and internationally, and served on a number of national advisory boards and review panels. He was a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and received a number of national awards for his research and publications, including:
  • President's Honor Roll, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, 1992
  • Outstanding Service Award, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, 2000
  • Pro Humanitate Literary Award, recognizing intellectual integrity and moral courage to overcome political and social barriers to best practice in the field of child welfare, awarded by the North American Resource Center for Child Welfare in 2002, 2006, and 2008
  • Fellow, American Psychological Association, 2004
  • Article of the Year Award, Child Maltreatment, 2006, 2010
  • Friedrich Memorial Lecturer, Mayo Clinic, 2009
Dr. Chaffin was also a member of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) and was the founding editor of APSAC's Child Maltreatment Journal, serving as Editor-in-Chief until 2004. A special issue of Child Maltreatment is being planned in Mark's honor. Through his research, Dr. Chaffin has enormous impact on child maltreatment practice. The effects of his life's work and legacy will be carried on by the impact he made not only in these fields, but on his students, colleagues, and all who knew him.
Dr. Chaffin was involved in and led a vast array of research efforts. We would like to pay tribute specifically to his work that has ultimately enabled SafeCare to expand efforts aimed at reducing child abuse and neglect internationally:

Chaffin, M., Bard, D., Bigfoot, D.S., & Maher, E.J. (2012). Is a structured, manualized, evidence-based treatment protocol culturally competent and equivalently effective among American Indian parents in child welfare? Child Maltreatment, 17(3), 242-252. 

Chaffin, M., Hecht, D., Bard, D., Silovsky, J. F., & Beasley, W. H. (2012). A statewide trial of the SafeCare home-based services model with parents in child protective services. Pediatrics, 129(3), 509-515. doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-1840

Lutzker, J.R., & Chaffin, M. (2012). SafeCare®: An evidence-based constantly dynamic model to prevent child Maltreatment. In H. Dubowitz (Ed.) World perspectives on child abuse. (10th Ed.) (pp.93-96). Canberra, Australia: The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.


Silovsky, J. F., Bard, D., Chaffin, M., Hecht, D., Burris, L., Owora, A., Beasley, L., et al. (2011). Prevention of child maltreatment in high-risk rural families: A randomized clinical trial with child welfare outcomes. Children and Youth Services Review, 33(8), 1435–1444. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.04.023
 
If you would like more information about Dr. Mark Chaffin's work or copies of these publications, please contact the National SafeCare Training and Research Center directly at SafeCare@gsu.edu.

A Remarkable Legacy 

Mark's dedication to protecting the lives of children was unparalleled, but it was perhaps his personality and relationship with others that most had a profound impact on those who knew him. We received an overwhelming number of responses to the news of the tremendous loss from friends, relatives, and colleagues around the world. 
 

"Dr. Chaffin will be remembered for his ability to take complex issues and get to the core of what really mattered. His capacity to effectively communicate to a wide range of audiences was a true gift. His was admired for his adherence to fundamental ethics and a need to do the right thing. Dr. Chaffin had a great sense of humor, including his opinions on sandals in the work place." (American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children)

"He took every opportunity to challenge his friends and colleagues about the impact they were making -- or could be making -- both personally and professionally. Despite all his contributions, articles, presentations and research, what mattered most to Mark was his family." (National Child Traumatic Stress Network)

"He gently, never with anger or judgment, assembled a carefully thought-out and balanced review of what we really know. Slicing through rhetoric, Mark could bring us all to the place we need to be: a humble awareness of how much we don't know, and a firm stance of what we do know...Mark has been my "E.F. Hutton of child welfare--when he talked, we all did well to listen. He will be missed." (Raelene Freitag, National Council on Crime & Delinquency)

"If there were a Broadway for our profession, the lights would surely go dark for a moment in Mark’s memory. His voice will continue to influence others in the field. His work will long endure and, I believe, continue to serve as a foundation for new advances. Striving to meet the standards that Mark has set will assure this happens."  (Dr. Robin Gurwitch, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center)

Further, we would like to recognize some of the sentiments shared about Mark from personal friends within NSTRC to honor the wit, humility, intelligence, and kindness which he managed to weave into every interaction with others. 

"Mark was maybe the smartest person I have ever known and yet we are getting stories like this from all over because he was a kind generous and engaged man. He was a Renaissance Man. We talked about the future of child welfare and all of our work and plans, and we talked about whisky, basketball, football, politics and history. For me, it has been a year of a kid in a candy shop having Mark around. On Monday, the shop was closed and this kid is devastated." (Dr. John R. Lutzker, Center for Healthy Development at Georgia State University)

"I first met Mark when he came for his job talk at GSU and NSTRC - I distinctly remember how kind he was, and how he took time with our staff to thoughtfully and genuinely answer our questions and hear our thoughts.  Of course when he joined our center he fit right into our faculty and staff who love a good joke or two!  NSTRC is a gem of a place to work for so many reasons; we're united in our common cause, we are a center full of compassionate and hilarious individuals, but by having Mark here it felt complete. Going on without him at NSTRC feels like a question mark. I think we will be feeling our way in the dark for a long while. I hope we will continue on with his memory in our hearts and minds, knowing that life is short and our work is good.  What a blessing to have known and worked with Mark." (Elizabeth Meister, National SafeCare Training and Research Center)

NSTRC has gathered a few videos of Mark in remembrance of his unique ability to speak in comprehensible ways to a variety of audiences about difficult subjects while maintaining a trademark sense of humor throughout. 
Dr. Mark Chaffin Panel
In Washington, DC., Dr. Chaffin participated in a panel discussion of implementation of EBPs at the Institute of Medicine's forum Opportunities to Promote Children's Behavioral Health: Health Care Reform and Beyond.
2014 PCA Georgia Conference keynote by Mark Chaffin, Ph.D.
During the Fall 2014 Prevent Child Abuse Georgia's Annual Conference on Engaging Individuals and Communities to Protect Children, Dr. Mark Chaffin was the Keynote Speaker. Dr. Chaffin's speech, "Prevention: What We Know and What We Don't," can be viewed by clicking the icon above. 
DUKE FELLOWS LECTURE
 In February of 2014, Georgia State University hosted a Doris Duke Fellows Lecture. Dr. Chaffin's talk, "Evidence-based Case Planning in Child Welfare," was the keynote speech and is a powerful testament to his dedication to the field as well as his impeccable ability to synthesize a wealth of information to be thorough yet comprehensible for whomever he addressed.
We are forever grateful for the time we had with Dr. Chaffin within the School of Public Health in the Center for Healthy Development and NSTRC. We hope to honor his incredible legacy through continued efforts around preventing child maltreatment globally. Our pace may not be as swift in his absence, nor will our light shine as bright, but our hearts and minds will forever pursue the good work Mark set forth.
We are thankful to Mark for sharing his brilliance and kindness with all of us, the field of child welfare will continue to benefit from his wisdom, and we are better as individuals for simply knowing him. It has been said that the character of a person can be judged in how they treat those who can do nothing for them. Mark was the person that offered something to us all, without expecting or asking anything in return. He will be missed.
Copyright © 2015 SafeCare, All rights reserved. 
Our mailing address is:
14 Marietta Street
Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30303
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