Thomas W. Pavkov, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Purdue University Calumet. Prior to coming to Purdue in 1993, Dr. Pavkov was a Research Associate at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. Over the past 10 years at Purdue Calumet, Dr. Pavkov has worked extensively with a variety of systems involved in the lives of children. These systems include juvenile justice, corrections, child welfare, mental health, and early childhood education. Dr. Pavkov was Director of the Head Start XXI Resource Center between 1997 and 2004. The staff of the Resource Center provided direct practice consultation to Head Start teaching and social services staff, including coaching and mentoring.
Since 1999, Dr. Pavkov has served as the Evaluation Director for the Circle Around Families Child Mental Health Initiative. As Evaluation Director, Dr. Pavkov has collected child and family level outcome data as well as data related to wraparound fidelity and the cultural competence of staff providing services to children through the Circle Around Families Program. Dr. Pavkov has also gained extensive knowledge of system of care development in all of Indiana’s 92 counties as the principal investigator on the Indiana System of Care Assessment Project (Pavkov, 2004).
As Principal Investigator of the Residential Treatment Center Evaluation project, Dr. Pavkov has operationalized a consultative approach to quality assurance assessments related to the mental health services provided to youth in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Dr. Pavkov has directed a team of consultants focusing on the assessment of service practice and has provided technical assistance to over 35 residential treatment centers designed to improve the quality of their services. Dr. Pavkov has also provided technical assistance and training for Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) assessment implementation in Lake County. Dr. Pavkov has also completed an evaluation for the Lake County Juvenile Court of its Community Transition program designed to facilitate successful transition of youth from Indiana Department of Correction facilitates to the local communities.
