Laine Scales

Education

PhD, Higher Education, University of Kentucky at Lexington
MSW, Carver School of Church Social Work, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
BA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Full Curriculum Vita

Affiliations

• Council on Social Work Education
• National Association of Student Personnel Administrators
• North American Christians in Social Work
• Online Learning Consortium

Selected Publications

Books:

Scales, T.L. and Kelly, M. eds. (2020). Christianity and social work: Readings on the Integration of Christian Faith and Social Work Practice, 6^th edition. New York, North American Association of Christians in Social Work.

Scales, T.L. and Maxwell, M.  (2019) “Doing the Word’: Southern Baptists’ Carver School of Church Social Work and its predecessors, 1907-1997. University of Tennessee Press.

Scales, T.L. and Howell, J.A. eds. (2018) Christian Faith and University Life: Stewards of the Academy: New York: Palgrave.

Scales, T.L., Singletary, J., & Cooper, H.S. (2016 and 2011). Social Environments and Human Behavior: Contexts for Practice with Groups, Organizations, Communities, and Social Movements. 1st and second editions. Oxford University Press.

Chapters and Articles:

Scales, T.L. (2020). Making a Home in the New House Beautiful: Women students negotiate calling, marriage, and race, 1942-1963.” In E. Flowers and K. Seat, Eds. A Marginal Majority: Women, Gender, and a Reimagining of Southern Baptist History, Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press.

Scales, T.L., Cichocki, C. and Rood, K. (2020).  “‘I Can’t Go in Alone’: A Frontier Girl’s Transformation into a Southern Baptist Missionary.” In E. Flowers and K. Seat, Eds. A Marginal Majority: Women, Gender, and a Reimagining of Southern Baptist History Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press.

Scales, T. L., (2020) “Our Future Faculty as Stewards of the Academy” in L. Wright and C. Richmann, Called To Teach: Excellence, Commitment, and Community in Christian Higher Education, Eugene, OR, Wipf and Stock.

Polson, E. C. and Scales, T. L. (2020). “Good Neighbor House: Reimagining Settlement Houses for 21st-Century Communities,” Social Work and Christianity, 47 (4) 100-122.

Pruitt, N. T. and Scales, T.L. (2019) “‘We want to help you to help us’: Southern Baptist and National Baptist Women and Race Relations during the 1930s and 1940s” in American Baptist Quarterly.38(3).304-329.

Background

T. Laine Scales is Professor of Social Work and advisor for part-time instructors. Prior to coming to Baylor, she was on the faculties of Stephen F. Austin State University and Palm Beach Atlantic University. In addition to achieving the rank of Professor, Dr. Scales completed 15 years as Associate Dean in Baylor’s Graduate School from 2004-2019. Her scholarly work led to her appointment as co-director of Baptist Scholars International Roundtable (BSIR).   She has authored, co-authored, or co-edited 10 books, 40 articles and chapters, and presented over 50 professional papers and workshops in higher education and in social work. Her research interests include doctoral education, history of Baptist women in social work and missions, and rural social work. She teaches masters and doctoral level students in advanced theories of community practice, Christianity and social work ethics, and qualitative research methods. In 2016,  Dr. Scales was awarded the designation Master Teacher, Baylor's highest teaching honor and in 2019, the Centennial Professor Award. She also provides faculty development  in online teaching and learning for part-time instructors in the Garland School of Social Work. 

With an administrative focus on faculty development, Dr. Scales has focused much of her career on developing newer faculty, graduate students and part time instructors. Through her leadership of such programs as Conyers Scholars, Baptist College and University Scholars, and Preparing our Future Faculty, she has mentored aspiring faculty from all disciplines as well as current faculty and administrators, serving as co-leader of the Summer Faculty Institute (2005-2008); Adjunct Training Institute (2008-2011), and Baylor Seminar for Academic Leadership (2014-2016). She was influential in in the creation of Baylor’s Academy for Teaching and Learning in 2008, and has served continuously on its advisory board as well as on the provost’s Teaching and Learning with Technology Committee.

Dr. Scales’s research on historical settlement houses led her to establish Good Neighbor Settlement House in Waco Texas, a social innovation experiment in nurturing community through an intergenerational experience of the arts, music, education, recreation, and worship.  “Settlers”, volunteers living in community, operate the organization while learning about community development. Baylor in Oxford,  a program Dr. Scales co-directs with Elizabeth Flowers is also an important part of her teaching with undergraduates. 

For more about Dr. Scales’s research, teaching, and service, as well as her CV, please visit this link