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Faculty Profile

Shulamith Lala Straussner

Professor of Social Work
LCSW, DSW, CEAP, BCD, CAS
lala.straussner@nyu.edu | (212) 998-5947

bio

Dr. Lala Straussner is the current Chair of the Practice area. She teaches in both the Practice and HBSE areas and directs the School's Post-Master Certificate Program in The Clinical Approaches to Addictions. She is the Founding Editor of the Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions. Her areas of interest include substance abuse, mass violence and trauma, occupational social work (including employee assistance programs), women s issues, family dynamics, social work education, mental health, and international social work. She is also on faculty at the annual Summer Institute on Addictions Studies, International School for the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

During the 2006-7 academic year, Dr. Straussner has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar at The Academy of Labour & Social Relations in Kiev, Ukraine, a visiting professor at Warsaw University in Poland, and recipient of the Lady Davis Fellowship to Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Previously, she was a Fulbright Senior Scholar to Israel (2003) and a Visiting Professor at Omsk State University, Omsk, Siberia (2000). She was the 2003 recipient of the Individual Distinction in Addictions Education and Training Award given by the Institute of Professional Development in Addictions, and was selected as Social Worker of the Year by the NASW ATOD Section in 2000.

Dr. Straussner served on the National Center on Substance Abuse Treatment panel on workforce issues, and was the Northeast Regional Director for the multi-million dollar federally funded national Project Mainstream, an Interdisciplinary Project to Improve Health Professional Education on Substance Abuse sponsored by AMERSA/HRSA/CSAT. She is a founding board member of the New York State Institute for Professional Development in the Addictions. Dr. Straussner is a past chair of NASW Section on Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs and has chaired the New York City Women's Issues Committee of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association. During 2002, she was a keynote speaker for the Betty Ford/Hazelden Women's Healing conferences throughout the U.S. Currently, she is the 2nd Vice President of the NYC Chapter of NASW. During 2006, she chaired the National Association for Children of Alcoholics’ (NACoA) Social Work Initiative to develop social work core competencies for working with children of alcohol and drug abusing parents.

Dr. Straussner conducts research, lectures and serves as a consultant to various agencies, hospitals and EAPs in U.S and abroad and has a private therapeutic and supervisory practice in New York City. She is also the proud mother of three children in college.

Dr. Straussner has numerous publications on a variety of topics. Among her 15 books, 18 book chapters and over 30 peer reviewed journal publications are:

selected books

  • Phillips, N. K. & Straussner, S.L.A. (Eds.) (2006). Children in the Urban Environment: Linking Social Policy and Clinical Practice (2nd Ed.) Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
  • Straussner, S. L. & Fewell, C.H. (Eds). (2006). Impact of Substance Abuse on Children and Families: Research and Practice Implications. NY: Haworth Press
  • Straussner, S.L.A. (ed.) (2004). Clinical Work with Substance Abusing Clients (2nd Ed). New York: Guilford Press (Main selection, Behavioral Science Book Club).
  • Straussner, S.L.A. & Phillips, N.K (Eds). (2003). Understanding Mass Violence: A Social Work Perspective. Boston: Allyn & Bacon
  • Straussner, S.L.A. & Harrison, L. (Eds) (2003). International Aspects in Social Work Practice in the Addictions. New York: Haworth Press
  • Straussner, S.L.A. & Brown, S. (Eds). (2002). The Handbook of Addiction Treatment For Women: Theory and Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
  • Spencer, R., DiNitto, D. & Straussner, S.L.A. (eds) (2002). Neurobiology and Addictions: Knowledge for Clinical Practice. New York: Haworth Press
  • Phillips, N. K. & Straussner, S.L.A. (2002). Urban Social Work: An Introduction to Policy and Practice in the Cities. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
  • Straussner, S.L.A. (Ed). (2001). Ethnocultural Factors in the Treatment of Addictions. New York: Guilford
  • Straussner, S.L.A. & Zelvin, E.(Eds) (1997). Gender and addictions: Men and women in treatment. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson. (Featured in Psychotherapy Book Club).

selected book chapters

  • Straussner, S.L.A. & Attia, P. (2002). Women's addiction and treatment through a historical lens. In Straussner, S.L.A. & Brown, S. (Eds). The Handbook of Addiction Treatment for Women: Theory and Practice (pp 3-25). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
  • Straussner, S.L.A. (2001). Jewish substance abusers: Existing, but invisible. In Straussner, S.L.A. (Ed). Ethnocultural Factors in the Treatment of Addictions. New York: Guilford

selected journal articles

  • Straussner, S.L.A. & Vairo, E. (In press). The impact of post-master’s substance abuse education on social work and other health professionals. Journal of Social Work Education.
  • Brown, R, Marcus, M. T. Straussner, S. L. A., Graham, A.V., Madden, T., Schoener, E. & Henry, R. (In press). Pilot test of a national dissemination model to enhance substance abuse curriculum at health professions schools: Findings from Project Mainstream's first fellowship cohort. Health Education Journal.
  • Madden T.E., Graham A.V., Straussner S.L.A, Saunders L.A., Schoener, E., Henry, R. Marcus, M.T. & Brown R.L. (2006). Interdisciplinary benefits in Project MAINSTREAM: A promising health professions educational model to address global substance abuse. Journal of Interprofessional Care 20(6):665-674.
  • Straussner, S.L.A. & Phillips, N. (2006). The role of empathy in work with women offenders. International Journal of Prisoner Health, 1(2-4): 255-262
  • Straussner, S.L., Naegle, M, Gillespie, C., Wolkstein, E., Donath, R, Azimita, E. (2006), The SATOL Project: An interdisciplinary model of technology transfer of substance abuse research-to-practice in clinical supervision. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work [special issue on “Computer Assisted Technology and Evidence-Based Practice”] 3 (2/3): 39 – 54.
  • Isralowitz, R., Straussner, S. & Rosenblum, A. (2006). Drug abuse, risks of infectious diseases and service utilization among Former Soviet Union immigrants: A view from New York City. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse 5(1): 91-96.
  • Straussner, S.L.A, Brown, R.L; Marianne T. Marcus, M.T.; Madden, T; Graham, A.V; & Schoener, E. (2005). The development and implementation of field service substance abuse projects by interdisciplinary health professionals faculty teams. Substance Abuse. 26(4):17-20.
  • Isralowitz, R., Straussner, S.L.A, Vogt, I & Chtenguelov, V. (2003). Preliminary exploration of immigrant substance abusers from the former Soviet Union living in Israel, Germany and the United States: A multi-national perspective. Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions, 2(3/4): 119-136.
  • Straussner, S.L.A & Senreich, E. (2002). Educating social workers to work with individuals affected by substance use disorders. Substance Abuse, 23(3): 319-340.
  • Straussner, S.L.A (2001). The role of social workers in the treatment of addictions: A brief history. Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions 1(1): 3-9.
  • Straussner, S.L.A. & Phillips, N.K. (1999) The impact of job loss on professional and managerial employees and their families. Families in Society, 80(6): 642-648.
  • Straussner, S.L.A. & Spiegel, B. R. (1996) "An Analysis of 12-Step Programs for Substance Abusers from a Developmental Perspective." Clinical Social Work Journal, 24(3): 299-309.