Janice A. Gasker, DSW, LCSW, ACSW

University of Pennsylvania, DSW; Marywood University, MSW; Cedar Crest College, BA

Dr. Gasker is a professor, and the director of the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania’s Baccalaureate Social Work program. As a co-founder of KU’s Master of Social Work program, she remains closely involved in its operation, particularly through its field education component. Dr. Gasker is both a licensed clinical social worker in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers, a national distinction marking the ability to practice social work independently.

Dr. Gasker is a generalist practitioner with practice experience in the fields of developmental disability, adolescents and families and sexual abuse survivors. She has been a counselor in private practice, a community-based family therapist, a clinical supervisor and program director, as well as a consultant to human service agencies on the topics of staff and program development.

An active NASW member, she has been working in human services since 1984 and brings a great deal of practice wisdom to the classroom. Along with research evaluating the efficacy of teaching methods, Dr. Gasker is also interested in researching the effectiveness of social work techniques. She has a particular interest in social and economic justice and its place in the social work curriculum. Dr. Gasker is widely published with two books and more than two dozen juried articles. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, the Council on Social Work Education and the Baccalaureate Program Directors. In 2012, Dr. Gasker was honored as Pennsylvania’s Social Worker of the Year, recognized for her significant contributions to the Berks County area, her leadership with the university, its students and faculty, and for her work towards the passage of legislation related to the licensure of baccalaureate-level social workers in Pennsylvania.

Recent Scholarship, Publication and Presentations

Gasker, J. & Yu, J.  (2014).  Economic justice and the 2003-2010 recession:  Lessons learned for social work.  Advances in Applied Sociology, 4, 261-270.

Gasker, J. & Fischer, A.  (2014).  In search of overlapping consensus:  Defining social justice for social work.  The Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 11(1).

Gasker, J.  (2014, November 7).  Profession-in-Environment: The Relationship Between Social Work and Social Work Education.  Keynote address at the annual PA National Association of Social Workers conference.  Monroeville, PA.

Gasker, J. & Fischer, A.  (2014, June 11).  They never taught me how to teach: Evidence-informed curriculum design for teacher-scholars.  International Interdisciplinary Social Science annual conference.  Vancouver, Canada.

Gasker, J.  (2012, November 13).  Economic and Financial Literacy: What/When/Where/How in the Curriculum?  Round table discussion at the 58^th Annual Program Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education, Washington, DC. 

Gasker, J.  (2012, March 15).  BSW student financial literacy: Considerations for professional advocacy and personal survival.  Round table discussion presented at the annual conference of the Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors, Portland, OR.

Gasker, J., & Campbell-LeBarre, H.  (2010).  The elephant in the room:  Understanding barriers to student articulation of diversity.  Creative Education, 2, 69-74.

Gasker, J., & Vafeas, J.  (2010).  The family-in-environment:  A new perspective on generalist social work practice.  The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 5(1), 291-304.

Gasker, J. (2005).  Informing Curriculum, Instigating Social Change:  A Community Forum for Program Renewal.  Arete, 28(2), 82-93.

Gasker, J., & Vafeas, J.  (2003).  Starting where the student is:  Adapting social justice curricula to attitudes about poverty.  The Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, 9(1), 103-112.

Cascio, T., & Gasker, J.  (2002).  Navigating the social jungle:  Using computer-mediated mentoring to enhance undergraduates’ professional identity.  The Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work.

Cascio, T., & Gasker, J.  (2001).  Everyone has a shining side:  Computer-mediated mentoring in social work education.  Journal of Social Work Education, 37(2), 1-11.

Gasker, J., & Cascio, T.  (2001).  Women empowering women with computer-mediated interaction.  Affilia, 16 (3), 295-313.

Gasker, J. A., & Cascio, T.  (2000).  Computer-mediated interaction:  A tool for facilitating the educational helping relationship.  The Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, 5(2), 145-160.

Gasker, J.  (1999, Spring).  Ethical issues in technologically-enhanced education. Values Newsletter of the Faculty Professional Development Council of the State System of Higher Education, 6(2), 2-3.

Gasker, J. A., & Cascio, T.  (1998).  The “human factor:”  Keeping relationship in technology-enhanced education via listserve.  In L. Ginsberg (Ed.), Information Technologies for Social Work Education and Practice Conference Proceedings, (pp. 160-169).  Columbia, SC:  University of South Carolina.

Gasker, J. A.  (1998).  Computer-mediated interaction:  Keeping human relationships in the technology-enhanced classroom.  In Doug Cook (Ed.), Proceedings of the 1998 SSHE ‘Computing Across the Curriculum’ Conference.  Shippensburg, PA:  Shippensburg University.

Gasker, J. A., & Cascio, T.  (1998).  Building learning relationships via class listserves.  In E. L. Krinsky & B. Krinsky (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Conference of the International Society for Exploring Teaching Alternatives (pp. 53-55).

Gasker, J. A.  (1996).  The making of a social work instructor:  A qualitative research  study.  Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 13 (1/2), 93-109.