Rate My Professor Thomas Starkey

Thomas Starkey Jr., Ph.D., LCSW, serves as Department Chair and Professor in the Department of Social Work and Sociology at Angelo State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Gerontology from the University of North Texas (2010), an M.S.S.W. in Social Work with a concentration in Direct Practice from the University of Texas at Arlington (2002), and a B.S.W. in Social Work from Texas A&M University-Commerce (1999). Before entering academia, Starkey worked as Social Work Coordinator at Mesquite Community Hospital's Pathways Unit (1999-2003), Program Director at Heritage Health Services in Houston (2003-2004), and Director of Out-Patient Services at Glen Oaks Hospital's Day-Break Program in Greenville (2005-2009). At Angelo State University, he started as Instructor of Social Work and Field Education Coordinator in the Department of Psychology, Sociology, and Social Work (2009-2010), progressed to Assistant Professor and Field Education Director (2010-2011), Assistant Professor and Social Work Program Director (2011-2016), Associate Professor and Program Director (2016-2017), and has been Assistant Professor and Department Chair since 2017.

Starkey's academic interests encompass clinical social work, social work and technology, aging, geriatric mental health and addiction, healthcare and mental health policy, international social work, and social work and law. His publications include the doctoral dissertation 'Attitudes of retirees towards mental illness treatment: A life course perspective' (2010), 'Mental health and senior adults' in Adult Enrichment Center (2010), and 'The COVID-19 pandemic and Its Effect on Emotional Well-Being of Social Work Students' in the Social Work International Conference proceedings (2023, with A.M. Scaggs, C. Shar, and J.L. Carr). He has a forthcoming article 'Personality differences between online and face-to-face social work students: A preliminary examination' (with J.L. Carr and C. Shar). Starkey has presented at conferences including the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education annual meetings (2011-2015) on topics such as retiree attitudes toward mental illness and infusing geriatric healthcare into social work programs, and NASW Texas Annual Conferences (2011-2016) on the Mini-Mental State Examination-2. He teaches graduate courses such as D.S.W. Administration and Leadership, D.S.W. Clinical Policy, D.S.W. History and Philosophy of Clinical Social Work, and M.S.W. Clinical Gerontology.