Directory
Mission in Action
The promotion of social justice is at the heart of my teaching, scholarship, and service. Within the classroom, I strive to help students understand the impact of marginalization and oppression as experienced by the populations we serve. I bring to that process my over 30 years of experience working with and advocating on behalf of people who experience severe mental illness and their family members. My interest in ethics, specifically Feminist Ethics, Ethics of Care, Virtue Ethics, and Professional Ethics, strongly informs the work I engage in with students as well as with the wider social work profession. For my students, ethics provides an important framework for helping them to not only engage with the many contemporary debates and struggles that impact the populations we work with but also help students develop a professional sense of self as they become champions of social justice at all levels of practice and advocacy.
About
James Marley, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work. Prior to coming to Loyola, Dr. Marley was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has over 30 years of experience working with people with severe mental illness and their families. Dr. Marley is on the editorial board of Clinical Social Work Journal and was the past Monitor for the National Association of Social Workers-Illinois Chapter Committee on Ethics. Dr. Marley presents regularly at state, national and international conferences on topics related to ethics, mental illness, and psychiatric rehabilitation. He frequently serves as an expert witness for the Illinois Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, Attorney General’s Office, and private attorneys on cases related to social work malpractice and incompetence, assessment and diagnosis of mental health disorders, and wrongful death allegations. Dr. Marley received his BSW from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his MSW and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Research Interests
- Family therapy with people with severe mental illness
- Psychosocial interventions for people with severe mental illness
- Applied and professional ethics
- Ethics and the treatment of severe mental illness
Courses Taught
- SOWK 501- Human Behavior in the Social Environment- II
- SOWK 612- Family Assessment and Intervention
- SOWK 626- Social work with people with severe mental illness
- SOWK 644- Ethics: Theory and Application
- SOWK 812- Historical and contemporary issues in social work practice
