Hey. This is me in a pose I thought looked authorish. Plus, the hand under the chin, I have learned, makes it look like you have one.
We are all many things. Among the things I claim to be are a Queer man, husband, and former social worker, professor and researcher. I am trying on this writer identity and liking it.
Curtis McMillen
Investigating
Topics I researched include the experiences of young people in transition from the foster care system, their experiences with mental health specialists and psychotropic medications, emotion regulation issues in this population, and ways to measure and improve the quality of mental health services. Here is my google scholar page.
Professing
I was a professor at two schools of social work, at the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis. I taught courses in social work practice, child welfare practice, human development, cognitive and behavioral interventions for children and youth, and research. I am proud of my students who are doing great things in this world, although I can't take any credit for that.
Working the system(s)
I worked in group homes, foster care programs, transitional living programs for young people leaving foster care, and in adolescent and adult in-patient mental health settings. I am passionate about representing these types of programs accurately and with heart. The people I met in this work taught me a lot about humanity, survival, and vulnerability. I try to use these lessons in my fiction but don't write about the people with whom I worked.
Living in the Queer and not so Queer World
I have a husband. I cannot lie, our life is good. We've been together a long time and still live on laughter. We've done the city thing, but now mostly hang out in a small town in Western Michigan where we eat lots of dinners with friends, keep bees, speak grammatically poor Spanish with each other, and occasionally square dance. While my Queer life has been a particularly untroubled one, I try to write Queer characters who experience some of the doubts and excitement that were part of my life.
Facts and figures?
I grew up mostly in Oklahoma, but have lived in Texas, Maryland, Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan as an adult.
I have degrees from Trinity University, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Maryland-Baltimore.
My age is currently unknown.
Honors and Honorifics
Yes, I have some! Not a lot. But some. And I am willing to show them off.
I am an elected member of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. It is a real thing, like an honor society for social workers, if you can imagine.
I recently had a fancy title at work, what they call in the trade a named professorship, as the David and Mary Winton Green Professor, at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice at the University of Chicago.
I was named one of the 50 Heroes of Justice by the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Social Work. Was I number 48 of 50? Who knows? Who's counting? I was grateful.
