Denver (September 24, 2007)

The American Humane Association, which is observing its 130th anniversary this year as the only national organization dedicated to protecting both children and animals, announced it is launching a new national child protection research center to operate under the leadership of John Fluke, Ph.D.  The first among a number of senior fellows who will collaborate with Fluke and the center is Dr. Patricia Schene. 

The new American Humane Center for Child Protective Services Research will address long-standing issues related to the improvement of public child protective services.  Research will focus on fundamental issues in child protective services and develop evidence-based policy and practices to effectively address them.  Among others, the initial areas of focus will include assessment and decision-making processes in child welfare cases, examination of the system’s racial disproportionality, improved ways to scale up the implementation of evidence-based intervention and treatment practices at agencies and community service providers, and the further development of a global network of child abuse and neglect data-collection systems and professionals.

John Fluke, Ph.D. will rejoin American Humane as the center’s founder and director. Fluke most recently was vice president of research for Walter R. McDonald & Associates, Inc. (WRMA) after joining the firm in 1999. He is nationally recognized as a researcher specializing in assessing and analyzing decision making in human services delivery systems. He is also known for his innovative and informative evaluation work in the areas of child welfare administrative data analysis, child welfare decision making, workload and costing, and performance and outcomes measurement for children and family services.

As a research manager John Fluke has experience in directing major research and evaluation projects focused on children’s mental health, child protective service risk and safety assessment, expedited permanency, guardianship, family group decision making, trauma services, adoption, and screening. For example, since 2005 he has been the principal investigator for WRMA’s contract with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to conduct the National Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and their Families Program, more often referred to as Systems of Care. He has been active in research and evaluation at all levels of government, in the private not-for-profit sector, and with national foundations and associations that includes work both in the United States and internationally. Previously, he was director of program, analysis and research for American Humane from 1979 to 1999.  Fluke holds his doctorate in organizational decision sciences from Union Graduate School in Cincinnati, Ohio; his master’s degree in anthropology from Pennsylvania State University; and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

American Humane also announced that Patricia Schene, Ph.D., has joined the center as an American Humane senior fellow.  Schene, of Littleton, Colorado, has made enormous contributions to the field of child protection. For more than 30 years, she has worked in the field of child and family services as a state administrator, private agency director, researcher and professor.  She has led national forums on the response to child abuse and neglect, and her work has involved national data system development, policy formulation, definition and measurement of outcomes, risk assessment, curriculum development, the building of community collaborations to protect children, and the development of differential response systems to report child maltreatment. Pat Schene worked in American Humane’s Children’s Division for 17 years, including her last eight years as director of the division.  Schene will be adding to American Humane’s capacity across various programs, contracts, and the foundational work of the research center, and will be helping to guide the strategic growth of the Children's Division.

The new research center at American Humane, along with numerous other program improvements, is made possible in large part by a recent and historic bequest to American Humane from the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Guy Di Stefano received in December 2006. Mr. and Mrs. Di Stefano were from Santa Barbara, California. 

 “This wonderful gift helps us accelerate the growth in child welfare programs we were already experiencing, and the good work of all our programs.  We highly value the partnerships with child welfare organizations and state and federal public agencies, which will now be solidified by the work of the new center,” said Marie Belew Wheatley, American Humane’s president and CEO.  “We are using the gift to significantly bolster and expand programs and our research, advocacy, education and training initiatives, all of which are geared toward advancing humanity and creating a more humane and caring society for the benefit of both children and animals.”
 
“Establishing this center represents a milestone contribution by American Humane’s Board of Directors to the child welfare field.  The board understands the importance of continuing to build the legacy of the organization and strengthening its direct ties to child protection,” said Sonia C. Velazquez, vice president of the Children’s Division of American Humane.