Dean
Dr. Ron A. Cisler, 2018-23
Dr. Ron Cisler has led the College of Health and Human Services at Western Michigan University as dean since August 2018. Before that, Dr. Cisler served as interim dean for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s (UWM) College of Health Sciences and director of the Center for Urban Population Health in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Dr. Cisler earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and master's and doctoral degrees from UWM—all in health and social psychology. In addition, he did post-doctoral work in addiction and behavioral health research, also at UWM. He has served in teaching and research positions at UWM since 1984. In addition to his two appointments as a full professor, he also serves as an affiliate professor or senior scientist for a number of other UWM, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Medical College of Wisconsin academic and research units.
Widely published in his discipline, Dr. Cisler has served as associate editor for the Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research and field reviewer for numerous other professional journals targeting clinical and public health alcohol research and broader community and population health. He has co-authored a several chapters in handbooks on behavioral disorders and substance use.
Dr. Cisler's primary research interests are in population health disparities, behavioral health risk factors, and alcoholism and alcohol-related illnesses. He is internationally known for his expertise in assessing recovery outcomes for alcohol treatment clinical trials. In recent years, he has also served at the local, state and national levels as a researcher and widely quoted expert on the topic of improving urban infant mortality rates and reducing health care disparities. He worked on a team which decreased teen birth rates significantly in a large urban Midwest city through a multi-faceted public health prevention and intervention campaign.
His research has attracted strong federal and foundation support from such entities as the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Education, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Wisconsin Partnership Program and pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Lipha and Oy-Contral. In addition, he has served on review panels for a number of federal grant programs, primarily in the National Institutes of Health.
Previous Deans
Dr. Earlie M. Washington, 2006-18
Before her appointment as dean of the WMU College of Health and Human Services in July, 2006, Dr. Earlie M. Washington had been a member of the faculty and director of the WMU School of Social Work since 2000. Previously, she was director and associate professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Southern Mississippi, where she had been a faculty member since 1992.
Dr. Washington earned her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Chicago and her M.S.W. from The Ohio State University in 1978.
Dr. Janet Pianeschi, 1988-2006
Dr. William A. Burian, 1976-88
Bill Burian was professor and dean, College of Health and Human Services at WMU, a position to which he was named in 1976 when the university initiated this new college. Previously, he served on the faculty of the School of Social Work. He joined the university faculty in 1969 as an associate professor, and in 1973 he was promoted to the rank of professor.
In addition to a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, Burian held a bachelor's degree from John Carrol University in Cleveland and a Master of Social Work degree from Boston College.
