Titles

• Affiliate Global Futures Scholar, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory
• Affiliate Faculty, Master of Social Justice and Human Rights
• Faculty Advisor, International Student Organization – International Connections, MOSAIC Club at Downtown Phoenix campus.

Biography

Barbara Klimek became MSW Coordinator of the Master of Social Work Program of the School of Social Work in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions at Arizona State University in July 2009. She holds MSW degree from Arizona State University, MA degree in Economics, major: Econometrics from Warsaw School of Economics, Warsaw, Poland, and PhD degree in economics from the University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland. Before assuming the MSW Coordinator position, she served for three years as a faculty member at the Department of Social Work at the Arizona State University at West campus where she also was the BSW Coordinator and Assistant Director for Field Education. Prior to joining the faculty at ASU, she was an Assistant Professor in Department of Economics at the University of Warsaw where she was engaged in research and teaching in the areas of economics and econometrics. 

Dr. Klimek research interests have been in area of macro-economics, specifically related to demand and supply of qualify manpower into national economy. She conducted research which allowed design and application of complex scientific econometric tools to problems related to planning and projecting future design and structure of the educational system in Poland. More recently, Dr. Klimek research agenda has been related to issues of cultural diversity, specifically refugees and immigrants, as well as international social work.

While at University of Warsaw, Dr. Klimek has taught classes in the field of economics, demographics, social and economic policy, and supervised master level dissertations. At Arizona State University, she has taught social work administration, research methods, applied project, cultural diversity, immigrants and refugees courses for undergraduate and graduate students in Social Work program, as well as Master of Social Justice and Human Rights program. ;Dr. Klimek conducts lectures/seminars and acts as an advisor/liaison and consultant in the area of field placements for international students. In addition, Dr. Klimek serves on many PhD committees for PhD students who are conducting research in area of refugees and immigrants.

Dr. Klimek comes to Arizona State University with 25 years of experience working in social service agencies. She has strong organizational, administrative and leadership skills and extensive knowledge of communities and ethnic diversity of the Southwest, as well as community based organizations and social services delivery systems in Arizona. She has many years of practice experience in generalist case management, program design, implementation, evaluation and monitoring in social service organizations. As a consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), MRS Refugee Resettlement Program, Dr. Klimek has provided advisement and has developed trainings how to effectively work with refugees and immigrants for 100+ refugee resettlement programs within the USCCB network.

Education

• MSW, Planning, Administration and Community, Arizona State University, 1992
• PhD, Economics, University of Warsaw, 1979
• MS, Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, 1971
• BS (equivalent), Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, 1969

Expertise

• econometrics
• Quality Education
• Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Reduced Inequalities
• Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
• Partnerships for the Goals
• Sustainable Cities and Communities
• learner-based teaching
• communities
• modeling and simulation
• economic development
• cultural diversity
• entrepreneurship
• international relations
• agriculture
• ethnic studies
• social work administration
• program design and evaluation
• case management
• immigration issues
• refugee studies
• cultural studies