Kenneth W. Merrell

Kenneth W. Merrell, PhD, until his death in 2011, was Professor of School Psychology and Director of the Oregon Resiliency Project at the University of Oregon. For 25 years, Dr. Merrell’s influential teaching and research focused on social–emotional assessment and intervention for at-risk children and adolescents and social–emotional learning in schools. He published over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles; several books and nationally normed assessment instruments; and the Strong Kids programs, a comprehensive social and emotional learning curriculum. Dr. Merrell was the Founding Editor of The Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools Series. He was a Fellow of the Division of School Psychology (Division 16) and the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (Division 53) of the American Psychological Association. In 2011 he received the Senior Scientist Award from Division 16, the Division’s highest honor for excellence in science, and the Outstanding Contributions to Training Award from the National Association of School Psychologists. Dr. Merrell’s contributions to the field of school psychology will continue to live on in his published works, in the many students he mentored over the course of his career, and through the manner in which he touched the lives of his colleagues on both a professional and personal level.