Laine Scales
Professor, PhD Program Co-Director
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
Research Interests
- Social Welfare History
- Settlement Houses (Historical and Contemporary)
- Baptists and Social Work (Historical)
- Doctoral Education as a Process of Formation
Selected Publications
Books:
Scales, T.L. and Chow Trammel, R., M. eds. (2024). Christianity and social work: Readings on the Integration of Christian Faith and Social Work Practice, 7th edition. New York, North American Association of Christians in Social Work
Maxwell M. and Scales, T.L. eds. (2023): Baptists and Gender; Macon, GA, Mercer University Press,
Scales, T.L. and Chaves, J., eds. (2023) Baptists and the Kingdom of God: Global Perspectives. Waco, TX, Baylor University Press.
Scales, T.L. and Maxwell, M. (2019). “Doing the Word’: Southern Baptists’ Carver School of Church Social Work and its Predecessors, 1907-1997. Knoxville, TN, 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:
Timbers, V., Hollenberger, J., and Scales, L. (2025). Using professional assets to build intellectual community within an online social work doctoral program: Lessons from a team of builders. Journal of Educators Online.
Scales T.L. (2024) “I did not come to China for that!”: Intersections of Gender, Marriage, and Motherhood for Southern Baptist missionary women in China, 1887 to -1914, Religions.
Scales, T. L. (2023). “The Immigrants of Today Will Be the Citizens of Tomorrow”: Woman’s American Baptist Home Mission Society’s Social Services and Evangelism, 1908-1918.” In Maxwell M. and Scales, T.L. Baptists and Gender, Macon, GA, Mercer University Press, pp. 258-268.
Scales, T.L. (2023). “ Settlement Houses,” in K.P. Kearns and W. Wang, Elgar Encyclopedia of Nonprofit Management, Leadership, and Governance, Northampton, MA, Edward Elgar. p. 521-523.
Hays, N. and Scales, T. L. (2022) Lessons from Malachi for Doctoral Students. Christian Higher Education, 21, (5), pp. 402-412.
Scales, T.L. Maxwell, M.C., and Holcomb, C.C. (2022). From personal service to church social work: Woman’s Missionary Union and social ministry in the twentieth century. Baptist History and Heritage, (57 (1), pp. 36-62.
Scales, T.L. and Henry, E. (2021). “We are glad God has sent these people to us,” Baptist Women’s Evangelism and Social Work Among Immigrants, 1908-1918.- American Baptist Quarterly, 40(2). pp. 127-141.
Scales, T. L. (2021). Cora Anne Davis: Pioneer in Church Social Work in Michael Williams, Ed.More Witnesses to the Baptist Heritage: Twenty-Four Other Baptists Every Christian Should Know. Macon, GA, Mercer University Press. pp.193-204.
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. pp. 29-50.
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.pp. 100-109.
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.
Background
T. Laine Scales is a Professor of Social Work and advisor for part-time instructors. She also serves as the inaugural Faculty Fellow in Baylor’s Learning Design. 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, the history of Baptist women in social work and missions, and rural social work. She teaches master's 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, and online faculty. 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 Online Faculty Institute, (2024-present); Summer Faculty Institute (2005-2008); Adjunct Training Institute (2008-2011), and Baptist Seminar for Academic Leadership (2014-2016). She was influential in the creation of Baylor’s Academy for Teaching and Learning in 2008. She 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 the 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