Timothy Hilton, PhD

BSW Program Director & Assistant Professor of Social Work
Phone: 227-2197
Office: Room 134 Gries Hall
E-mail: thilton@nmu.edu

Educational Background

• PhD University of Chicago, 2007
• A.M. University of Chicago, 1997
• B.A. Boston College, 1995

Dr. Tim Hilton is the Bachelor of Social Work Program Director.  In addition to administering the BSW Program,  Dr. Hilton teaches a variety of social work courses, including macro practice methods.  He  earned his Ph.D. from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.  His research focuses mainly on issues surrounding welfare and work.  Dr. Hilton’s dissertation highlighted low-wage employers’ use of labor market intermediaries (organizations that connect workers and firms) in filling lower-level jobs.  His study critically examined firms’ human resource practices, especially methods of attracting workers, and implications for lower-skilled and otherwise disadvantaged job seekers using welfare-to-work and other community-based organizations to find jobs.   

Dr. Hilton is also working on another project with faculty from the University of Chicago and University of Washington exploring differences in state substance abuse treatment service systems in Illinois and Oregon.  The study highlights variations in states’ administrative systems and how these are associated with the ways budgetary cutbacks impact services.

He also has several years of social work practice experience dealing mainly with the provision of training and placement and case management services to disadvantaged job seekers and has worked within community-based organizations, schools, and government agencies providing direct services, research and policy analyses and program management. 

Profile

More than 10 years of social work practice experience within community-based organizations and government agencies administering welfare-to-work and other jobs programs for disadvantaged populations.  Work has involved program management, case management and supervision, policy analysis and practice-oriented research, and grant writing.

Taught several social work courses at University of Chicago and Dominican University (Chicago) in the following areas: research methods, data analysis, social work history and policy, human behavior in the social environment, and social service systems.

Research interests include: employment experiences of lower-skilled and other disadvantaged job seekers, training and employment programs for disadvantaged populations, contracting and the management of public social service delivery networks, and the history and development of the social work profession.   

Current research projects include a study of homeless adults residing in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Dr. Hilton has also been involved with a study of Chicago-area hotels’ use of community-based organizations to attract lower-level workers, and an examination of Illinois’ substance abuse service delivery network and service providers’ responses to recent financial cutbacks.