At the recent 2018 Strengthening Colorado Families and Communities Conference, Social Work Research Center Director Marc Winokur received the Innovative Leadership Award. The honor salutes nearly 15 years of work strengthening Colorado families.
The biannual conference is sponsored by Illuminate Colorado, a statewide organization dedicated to building brighter childhoods through education, advocacy, and family support. Awardees also included Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, Colorado State Representative Dafna Michaelson Jenet, and the Zoma Foundation.
Winokur was recognized with the Innovative Leadership Award, which is presented to an individual who has made repeated significant contributions to research on preventing child maltreatment and increasing support for families over their career to advance the field.
Focusing on innovation and quality
During his career, Winokur spearheaded the development of many program evaluations and research studies ensuring quality implementation of Colorado’s ground breaking child welfare and child maltreatment prevention programs.
His many years of applied research experience in child welfare has enabled Winokur to influence policies, practices, and procedures at the international-, federal-, state-, and county-levels.
Projects completed in CSU’s Social Work Research Center under Winokur’s leadership include Colorado Community Response, SafeCare Colorado, Differential Response, CORE Services, Collaborative Management, Colorado IV-E Waiver, and Applied Research in Child Welfare Project.
Dedication to Colorado families
“This award is a reflection of a lot of things. As a researcher at the school of social work, we are constantly reminding ourselves that the ones and twos that we are looking at on a screen are families’ lives.” said Winokur. “This award is for the families, for their perseverance, their resiliency, and the love that they show to keep their families safe and secure.”
Winokur joined the School of Social Work faculty at Colorado State University (CSU) in fall 2004. He received his Ph.D. in Education and Human Resource Studies with a specialization in Research Methods and Program Evaluation from CSU.
“Marc has provided key oversight for evaluations on kinship care, adoption, family preservation services, child maltreatment prevention, child welfare caseworker retention, and family treatment drug courts,” said School of Social Work Director Audrey Shillington. “He gave us knowledge and commitment to make a difference in the lives of Colorado families. He is most deserving in this important recognition.”
The Social Work Research Center is part of the School of Social Work in CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
