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Benedict T. McWhirter, Ph.D.

Department Head & Professor, Counseling Psychology
240 HEDCO Building
5251 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-5251
benmcw@uoregon.edu

As a UO faculty member since 1997, my research foci have been on: (1) studying the factors that contribute to risk and resilience in and that inform interventions for adolescents at risk for engaging in problem behavior, such as violence, risky sexual behavior, and drug and alcohol use; and (2) studying college students and issues pertaining to college student development, retention, and support. I am particularly interested in the role of connectedness to self, others (e.g., peers, parents, teachers), and environments (e.g., educational settings, neighborhoods) as potential protective factors in both adolescent and young adult college student populations. Similarly, I am interested in ethnic identity among youth as a factor that contributes to retention and success. These themes also have been central to the extensive student research that I supervise in our doctoral program at UO. Among my publications in the area of counseling and adolescence is the text, At Risk Youth: A Comprehensive Response (4th Ed.; 2007, Brooks/Cole) by J. Jeffries McWhirter, Benedict T. McWhirter, Ellen Hawley McWhirter, and Robert J. McWhirter.

In 2004 I was named a Fulbright Scholar to Chile to teach at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago, and to conduct research among Chilean adolescents and families. In 2007 I received a Spencer Foundation Grant to continue this research and to support an extensive multi-method, multi-agent research project on universal and culturally specific risk and protective factors among Chilean youth and families in high-risk schools in metropolitan Santiago (2007-2009). In collaboration with colleagues from the Universidad de Chile, the overall focus of this research has been to examine the feasibility of implementing a school-based, family-centered intervention to reduce risky behavior and improve educational and health outcomes among Chilean adolescents. As a behavioral scientist with our UO Child and Family Center, I have also worked to coordinate efforts among colleagues internationally to link my research in Chile with similar work being conducted in other countries, with the ultimate goal of enhancing youth and family interventions in other national milieus.

My Fulbright and Spencer Foundation funded research has grown out of one of my long-standing cultural immersion and community service commitments. Since 1996 I have visited and worked in Peñalolén, Chile, a poor community of Santiago, and for the past decade (2000-2009), along with Ellen Hawley McWhirter, Ph.D., I have conducted pro bono training workshops for peer-educator couples on conflict resolution, family communication, parenting, and group leadership and facilitation skills for the Centro de la Familia (Center for the Family), a program of San Roque Catholic Parish, administered by the Congregation of Holy Cross in Chile.

Among some of my other service and governance activities, I currently serve as department head for the Counseling Psychology and Human Services department in the COE, as chair of the UO Graduate Council (2008-2010), and I have served as faculty advisor and co-chair for the College of Education Ethnic Diversity Affairs Committee (EDAC). EDAC is dedicated to the recruitment and retention of, as well as the support and advocacy for students, faculty, and staff of color within the College of Education and to advancing student and faculty multicultural competence.

EDUCATION
• Ph.D., Counseling Psychology, Arizona State University, 1992
• M.C., Counseling, Arizona State University, 1988
• B.A., Theology/Arts and Letters, University of Notre Dame, 1986
Additional education includes fluency in Spanish and study in Peru, Australia, and Turkey

University of Oregon College of Education