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Edward Pecukonis MSW, Ph.D. is a Full Professor, and Director of Doctor of Social Work (DSW) program at the University Of Maryland School of Social Work. He has also served as the PI and director of the Federally funded University of Maryland Center for Maternal and Child Health Social Work Education from 2000 through 2018. Dr. Pecukonis has instructed students on the UMB campus for the past 43 years. He held a faculty appointment within the University of Maryland School of Medicine from 1983-1997 where he taught within the Department of Psychiatry (1983-1986) and later in the Department of Family Medicine (1986-1997) where he was the director behavioral science training for medical students and residents.
Dr Pecukonis is a licensed clinical social worker and received his Master of Social Work degree from the Smith College School for Social Work, located in Northampton, Massachusetts, and his doctorate from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Dr. Pecukonis also holds a certificate in Clinical Psychology from the Shepard-Pratt school of Mental Health Studies and participated in a one year course of study in strategic family therapy, at the Family Therapy Institute, Washington, DC . (Jay Haley) Dr. Pecukonis is fellowship trained and a graduate of the Project Mainstream National Fellowship program which was a jointly funded by AMERSA, HRSA, C-STAT and SAMSA. This national interdisciplinary fellowship promoted substance abuse assessment and treatment across the professions of Social Work, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy. Dr Pecukonis also has specialized training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy from the Beck Institute in Philadelphia, PA (2015). Dr Pecukonis has also spearheaded a national effort to train child welfare social workers and their supervisors in Motivational Interviewing. This award winning program has been acknowledged by both the School of Social Work and the National Association of Social Workers as both innovative and timely because of his use of simulation and standardized clients
Dr Pecukonis joined the full time faculty at the School of Social Work in 1997 and has taught courses in Interprofessional Education, Family Therapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Maternal and Child Health and Social Work Practice. Between 2009 through 2015, Dr. Pecukonis served as the as co-chair of the campus IPE task force to promote Interprofessional education across the UMB campus. He was one of the founders and inaugural directors of the UMB campus Interprofessional Education Center. Dr. Pecukonis’s innovative teaching was honored in 1994 when he was awarded the Community Service Award by the President of the University and again in 2003 when he was honored with the University’s Martin Luther King Diversity Recognition Award. He was named Social Work Teacher of the year by the National Association of Social Workers in 2009. Most recently Dr. Pecukonis was named Teacher of the Year for the 2015 founders day award on the UMB campus.