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Dr Ungar profile

Dr Ungar is is a Killam Professor of Social Work at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada.

He is the founder and Co-Director of the Resilience Research Centre and Director of the Children and Youth in Challenging Contexts Network.

In 2012 Dr Michael Ungar’s work on resilience and its application within clinical and community work was recognised by the Canadian Association of Social Workers with a National Award for Outstanding Service.

For 25 years Dr Ungar has practiced as a social worker and written numerous books and articles on resilience. He also maintains a small family therapy practice in association with Phoenix Youth Programs, a prevention program for street youth and their families. His positions include:

  • Killam Professor of Social Work at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada where his research interests include resilience, child and adolescent mental health, family therapy, ecological social work, cross-cultural diversity, delinquency, child development and social constructionism.
  • Network Director of the Children and Youth in Challenging Contexts Network that aims to improve mental health and wellbeing for vulnerable and at-risk children and youth in Canada.
  • Co-Chair of the advisory committee for the Nova Scotia Mental Health and Addictions Strategy that was released in 2012.
  • Founder and Co-Director of the Resilience Research Centre (RRC) that coordinates more than five million dollars in research, across different countries, disciplines and cultural backgrounds, into how children, youth, and families cope with adversity. 

He has written many books, and his work has featured in numerous magazines and newspapers and he regularly appears on radio and television. He is the author of a regular blog in Psychology Today: Nurturing Resilience: Raising children to be competent and caring.