Family Therapy Program Faculty

  
Becky F. Antle, PhD is a graduate of the Family Therapy Program at the University of Louisville and has specialized in research related to family health. Dr. Antle is the Principle Investigator on a five year grant funded by the US DHHS, Office of Family Assistance, to provide relationship education to high-risk adults and youth in the Louisville area, as well as the Principle Investigator for another five year grant funded to develop and train child welfare teams on issues of healthy marriage and family formation.  She has previously served as the PI or Co-PI on a number of other state and federal grants, including the Governor's Early Childhood Intervention Program Kids Now, the Child Welfare Training Assessment Project, the Cancer as a Chronic Disease grant funded by the Centers for Disease Control, the Family Support Training Assessment Project, and an evidence-based practice grant for the treatment of schizophrenia funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. For the past ten years, she has been involved in research on solution-based child welfare practice, the impact of domestic violence on children, and related other issues effecting children and families.

Joe Brown received his PhD in Counseling Psychology and currently serves as a Professor of Family Therapy at the Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville. In 1984 along with Dana Christensen, he co-founded the Family Therapy Program at the University of Louisville. His most recent training and research interests are designing and evaluating psycho-educational programs for high-conflict and divorced families that focus on co-parental and parent-child relationships. He currently serves as Director of the Families in Transition Program, a divorce adjustment program for families, Administrative Office of the Courts, and an editorial board member for the Family and Conciliation Courts Review.
 
Dana Christensen, PhD, Director of the Family Therapy Program, directs the Center for Family Resource Development at the University of Louisville and is a Professor in the Kent School of Social Work. He holds a doctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy and is a Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. Dr. Christensen has written widely in the fields of juvenile justice, child welfare, and mental health for over twenty years. He is the co-author of the book Family Therapy Theory and Practice as well as the new text Solution Based Casework: An Introduction to Clinical and Case Management Skills in Social Work Practice. Dr. Christensen has worked closely with many state agencies assisting them in their efforts to improve their case assessment, case planning, and case management practices. He has also worked closely with mental health treatment providers in developing practices that facilitate working partnerships with child protection, school services, and juvenile justice agencies.
 
Eli Karam, PhD, LMFT is an Assistant Professor in the Family Therapy Program in the Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville. There he conducts research on couple and family relationships, teaches and supervises therapists-in-training.  Dr. Karam is a graduate of both The Family Institute at Northwestern University and Purdue University's Department of Child Development and Family Studies. He is also currently the President for the Kentucky Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (KAMFT).  Eli has been recognized both locally and nationally by AAMFT for his contributions to the profession of marriage and family therapy. In addition, Eli has presented at national conferences and to general audiences speaking on the topics of couple therapy, research and practice integration in marriage and family therapy training programs, the therapeutic alliance, and MFT Common Factors. Eli also promotes the profession of marriage and family therapy and educates the public through various television and radio appearances. http://www.elikaram.com/DrEliintheMedia.en.html
 
Don Pitts, M.Ed, LMFT completed the Post-Masters Family Therapy Program at the University of Louisville in 1993. He is a Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor of The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He is currently the clinical supervisor for Family and Children’s Counseling Centers, West Office. He has been with Family and Children’s for the last 11 years. Prior to that he has worked as a family preservation therapist, school counselor, and counselor for at risk teens and their families. Don enjoys using collaborative and narrative ideas in his work with families and in supervision.   

Emma Sterrett received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously, she received an M.S. in Marital and Family Therapy from Northwestern University. Her research interests include the impact of relationships with non-parental adults on adolescent well-being and, more broadly, the potential of interpersonal relationships to reduce health disparities affecting low income and ethnic and sexual minority youth. She is the Co-Principal Investigator of a recently funded study to examine the effects of mentoring program components on behavior problems among middle school students at risk for delinquency. In addition, she is a Research Investigator for a project designed to collect  qualitative data regarding ideal content and format of a family-based childhood obesity intervention developed for low-income families. She has published manuscripts and presented at national conferences on several topics, including links between interpersonal processes in African American single mother families and adolescent psychosocial functioning, the effects of non-parental adult involvement on youth well-being, and parental engagement in family interventions.