Specific Pioneering Contributions
Bruce Thyer has served for over 40 years in social work education, at the University of Georgia and at Florida State University, working his way up through the ranks to his present position as Distinguished Research Professor and former Dean at Florida University. Two of his most significant pioneering contributions consist of being a founder of the Society for Social Work and Research, and of being the founding and continuing editor of the highly regarded peer reviewed journal titled Research on Social Work Practice, a professional periodical he has consistently edited for 36 years. Dr. Thyer’s scholarship has been instrumental in integrating science into social work practice. His influential work on behavioral interventions has propelled the profession toward the use of empirically supported treatments, shaping both scholarship and practice. Through his leadership and vision, Dr. Thyer has profoundly impacted a generation of social work scholars and practitioners, leaving an enduring legacy of research on social work practice.
Career Highlights
Following over three years of service in the United States Army (1973-1976), where he worked as a drug and alcohol abuse counselor to fellow soldiers, Bruce enrolled in the MSW program at the University of Georgia, graduating from the clinical track in 1978. He then enrolled in the Ph.D. program in social work and psychology at the University of Michigan. Concurrently with his doctoral studies, Bruce was employed part-time and then full time as a clinical social worker with the Department of Psychiatry’s Anxiety Disorders Program, from 1979-1984. He completed his Ph.D. in 1982 and continued to work clinically, seeing clients with phobias, panic disorder, generalized anxiety, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and PTSD, primarily using behavioral therapies in individual and group treatment. He began his publishing activities while employed as a social worker in Ann Arbor. He took an Assistant Professor position as assistant director of field instruction at Florida State University in 1984. He was promoted to associate professor without tenure in 1986, and in 1987 moved to the University of Georgia School of Social Work where he remained until 2002. While at UGA he was tenured and then promoted to full Professor in 1990, followed by the additional award of being appointed as a Distinguished Research Professor in 1997, an honorific granted to only 3-4 faculty per year. He served as Director of MSW Admissions, Director of the Social Work Research Center and as Director of the Ph.D. Program during his stay at UGA, leaving in 2002 to be appointed Dean of social work at Florida State University, where he has remained on the faculty, active in teaching, research and service. Under his leadership, Florida State University created the first online MSW program, a program that has greatly expanded and has been emulated by numerous social work programs around the United States. In 1990 he approached Sage Publications with a proposal to establish a new independent journal to be titled Research on Social Work Practice, with an explicit focus on promoting intervention research on the outcomes of social work practice, a form of scholarship that was under-utilized within the field at the time. The new journal was a success, is now published 8 times a year, and has earned a good impact factor. Literally thousands of articles have appeared within its pages during Thyer’s 36 years of continuing editorship. It is highly regarded within the profession and attracts a large number of submissions from around the world, over 360 in 2025. He co-edited 2 the Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal (Springer) and the Journal of Evidence-based Practice (Taylor and Francis), each for about 7 years. In 1992 he was approached by Dr. Janet B. W. Williams to help serve on the founding Board of Directors and establish the Society for Social Work and Research, an organization that has grown from its first conference in 1995 with about 250 attendees, to its present size of over 2000 members, and status as the world’s foremost social work research organization. He served on the SSWR Board as member at large and treasurer for about 8 years. He has attend every SSWR conference but one since its inception and take great pride at how this organization has enhanced the profession. During his 40+ plus years in the academy Dr. Thyer has taught a wide variety of social work courses (HBSE, Research, Theory, Practice) at the BSW, MSW, Ph.D. and DSW levels, and has chaired 23 doctoral students to successful completion of their Ph.D.s Two of his graduates have gone on to be Deans of social work programs (at Tennessee and Tulane) and one is an endowed chair with the University of Alabama.
Biographical Data
Dr. Thyer was born in 1953 in Chicago, and by virtue of his mother’s Canadian citizenship he became a dual national with the USA and Canada in 2016. After high school he attended community college in Fort Myers Florida, where he lived from 1960 – 1973, and then enlisted in the US Army, serving from 1973 – 1976, having completed his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Maryland’s overseas program, also in 1976. While in the military he earned qualification as an advanced open water scuba diver and his private pilot’s license from the FAA. While in the service he was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Good Conduct Medal and the Cold War Certificate of Recognition. He also held a Top Secret security clearance. Bruce was a first generation college student, is married to a fellow social worker, and has four grown children, three sons and a daughter, all successfully launched as independent adults. Apart from each earning a bachelor’s degree, three have gone on to earn Masters’ degrees and one a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Chicago. He travels widely aboard, often with his spouse and children, and he has strong academic connections in China, Hong Kong, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Significant Recognitions and Awards
Dr. Thyer is a current Fellow with the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, the Society for Social Work and Research, and the American Psychological Association. He has been a past Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the social work branch of the American Academies of Practice. He served as a nationally elected member of the Board of Directors of the Council of Social Work Education (2001-2004), on the GADE Steering Committee (2000-2002), and received the GADE annual award for Excellence in Educational Leadership in 2020. He received a Fulbright Specialist Program grant in 2013, visiting Kings University College at the University of Western Ontario. He has held visiting professorships with Yonsei University in South Korea and with the Optentia Research Group at North West University in South Africa. He was appointed to serve a three year term on the Examination 3 Committee of the Association of Social Work Boards (1987-1990). He is also a LCSW in Florida and Georgia, an approved clinical supervisor for Florida social workers, and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral. Other awards and recognitions include a temporary commission with in the US Public Health Service Corps while a MSW student intern, a predoctoral fellowship from the NIAAA, a meritorious service award from the Society for Social Work and Research, the Clara Louise Meyers lectureship Award from the University of Missouri, and receipt of two medals for the Pro Humanitate Human Service Professional and Training Award from the North American Research Center for Child Welfare. He also earned the Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence from the Tulane University DSW program, where he was an adjunct professor for 7 years. In 2017 he was recognized as a Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University, an honorific he had previously earned at the University of Georgia.
Significant Publications
Dr. Thyer is a widely published social worker, having written over 330 articles in peer reviewed journals, over 130 chapters in professional books, and is the author/editor of over 35 books. Dr. Thyer has been a frequent contributor to the NASW press publications His h-index is 57, and several publications written by others place him among the top 20 most influential scholars in the field of social work. His most recent book is titled Experimental Research Designs in Social Work (2023, Columbia University Press) and has been reprinted in China and India. His coauthored book on program evaluation is in its 6th edition and has been cited over 947 times. A new edition of this book co-authored with social worker David Royse is in the works. His Handbook of Social Work Research Methods (Sage Publications) has been cited over 925 times, and his paper titled Evidence-based Practice and Social Work (2004) has been cited over 440 times. All told he has over 15 papers cited over 100 times, a metric some have labeled as a citation classic. His works have focused on the themes of evidence-based practice, evaluation research, clinical social work theory, treatment of clients with anxiety disorders, and in promoting the better integration of science and social work in general.