Katherine Tyson McCrea, Ph.D., Professor, earned B.A. and M.Div. degrees from Yale University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration. She received a Doctorate, Honoris Causa, from Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania, in June, 2015. Recognized as a Master Teacher by the Council on Social Work Education since 1994, she developed social work curricula about child treatment, philosophy of research, participatory action research, and global social work practice. A Fulbright Senior Specialist, she has taught seminars for social workers from the U.S. and abroad (Korea, Lithuania, Italy, Greece, Finland, and Thailand), in-person and through video-conference methods. She was named Graduate Faculty Member of the Year by the Council on Graduate Programs of Loyola University Chicago in 2019, for outstanding research, service, and teaching reflecting Ignatian values.

Her publications have focused on 1) improving services for persons experiencing disadvantages based on low income and racial discrimination, especially children and homeless adults, and 2) a practitioner-relevant philosophy of research for the social and behavioral sciences, focusing on using participatory action methods to develop with clients social work models and policies that are more relevant for persons experiencing disadvantage. The founding Editor-in-Chief of Illinois Child Welfare, she developed the journal so that it has become international and multidisciplinary, with a practice-oriented emphasis (see www.illinoischildwelfare.org).

Since 2006 she has been the Principal Investigator for the participatory-action–based Empowering Counseling Program Participatory Science Initiative (ECP-PSI), which uses participatory methods in a translational science framework to develop service and policies based on clients' perspectiveis. The ECP-PSI provides street-based clinical social work services and after-school and summer program services for disadvantaged children and youth in Chicago’s South and West side communities (see https://empowercounselprog.wixsite.com/ecp-luc). The Empowering Counseling Program Participatory Science Initiative has received over $2.4M in funding from diverse local, state, and federal and private sources, educated over 60 masters and doctoral level social workers, and served over 1000 disadvantaged children and youth. ECP-PSI research has yielded several dissertations, peer-reviewed journal articles, and local, national, and international presentations, most often co-authored with youth. As Empowering Counseling Program PI, Prof. McCrea was a Co-Principal Investigator, in partnership with Prof. and PI Maryse Richard's Risk and Resilience Lab, in a Department of Justice funded project studying the development of resilience via cross-age mentoring for youth of color living in high-poverty, high-crime Chicago communities (http://savinglivesinspiringyouth.weebly.com/) from 2014-2019.

Professor Tyson McCrea teaches social work practice, clinical social work practice with children, and global social work Since 2006, Professor Tyson McCrea has partnered with colleagues at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania to offer and develop global social work education using videoconference methods.With Profs. Violeta Ivanauskiene and Jonas Ruskus she teaches courses on Global Social Work and Participatory Action Research that have been offered to social work students from every continent of the planet. The focus of their partnership for global social work education is development, with students, of peacebuilding global social work models. She lives in Evanston with her husband and three children.