Continuing Dr. Friedman's Legacy
On the eve of Dr. Friedman's retirement, the University of South Florida is proud to honor him by establishing the Robert Friedman Endowed Professorship in Child & Family Studies (pdf). This endowed position recognizes Dr. Friedman's remarkable career.
As the only endowed professorship in Child & Family Studies, the impact of your involvement will make a huge impact on the department’s ability to realize its mission.As competition for world-class faculty continues to intensify among leading universities, endowed chairs and professorships have become the most effective tool available to recruit and retain eminent scholars, clinicians and teachers from across the globe - who, in turn, attract other exceptional faculty and students. With that in mind, the Robert Friedman Endowed Professorship has been established by his family, friends and colleagues to bring the world's foremost experts to join an already outstanding child and adolescent services faculty.
Gifts to the Robert Friedman Endowed Professorship may be made on-line here.
Robert Friedman
Dr. Robert Friedman served as Director of the federally funded Research & Training Center for Children’s Mental Health for 25 years, CFS Department Chair for 22 years, and Interim Dean of FMHI for one year. In each of these roles, he was dedicated to increasing the understanding of the mental health needs of young people, and developing systems of care to help address these problems. Dr. Friedman is co-author with Beth Stroul of A System of Care for Children and Youth with Severe Emotional Disturbances, a monograph widely used across the country to plan service delivery systems. He served on many national committees including the Planning Board for the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, chaired task forces and review panels for the federal government, and provided Congressional testimony on several occasions. In 2000, he served as Principal Author for the Children’s Workgroup report of the Florida Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse. He gave expert testimony to the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in 2002, and helped author the Children’s Sub- Committee report of the Commission. He also organized the Alliance for the Safe, Therapeutic, and Appropriate Use of Residential Treatment (A-START), a committee ensuring that residential care is provided safely and only when needed to young people.
The Department of Child and Family Studies (CFS) at the USF College of Behavioral & Community Sciences is committed to improving the well-being of individuals, children, and families within communities across the country through promoting respect, inclusion, development, achievement, mental health, and an optimum quality of life.