Esther Gillies

ESTHER H. GILLIES, MSW, LCSW, joined the faculty of the USC School of Social Work as a clinical associate professor in 2002, where she teaches master's level practice and policy classes in both the foundation year and in the Families and Children concentration. Gillies serves on the board of directors for several organizations, including the United Nations Association, Pasadena/Foothills chapter, a grassroots foreign policy organization advocating universal human rights; St John's Well Child and Family Clinic, a federally funded community health center providing medical, dental and mental health services to indigent families in South Central Los Angeles; and the California Social Welfare Archives, which is devoted to collecting and preserving the history of social work in California.

Prior to joining USC, Gillies worked as adjunct faculty at California State University, Los Angeles, in the School of Social Work for more than 12 years. She worked for more than 20 years in the Los Angeles County public child welfare system in a variety of positions, including child protective services worker; supervisor, Child Sexual Abuse Project (CSAP); director, Child Crisis Center, Harbor/UCLA Medical Center; and most recently as the bureau chief for the Los Angeles County Department Children and Family Services, where she was responsible for all direct services (including mandated CPS programs, foster care, adoption and emancipation programs) in the largest public child welfare system in the country.

As director of the Southern California Training Center at Children's Institute International, a California state-funded training program, Gillies developed and implemented hundreds of specialized training programs throughout Southern California for thousands of social workers, law enforcement, mental health and medical professionals working with child sexual abuse issues. She directed the Family CARE Center at Children's Institute International, a program providing outpatient mental health and social services to physically abused and neglected children and children suffering from sexual exploitation. She later served as executive director of the Children's Center of the Antelope Valley, a non-profit agency providing services to child victims of physical abuse and neglect and sexual abuse.

Gillies is a founding member of CAPSAC (The California Society on the Abuse of Children), a multidisciplinary professional society promoting education of professionals working with child victims of abuse. She has served as a member of the Los Angeles County Child Safety Task Force, California Children's Justice Act Task Force, California State Board of Control/Victims of Crime Standards of Care Task Force and the Los Angeles County Children's Planning Council.

Gillies' most recent publications are included in the 2000 Guidelines: Standards of Care for Child Crime Victims, a publication by the California Victims Compensation and Government Claims Board designed to provide mental health standards of care for child trauma victims. She has been an invitational presenter at conferences throughout the state and has provided training programs internationally in Canada, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand.

Gillies also has been recognized by and received awards and commendations from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors; Los Angeles County Children's Planning Council; cities of Palmdale and Lancaster, Calif.; National Association of Counties; California Professional Society on the Abuse of Children; California Consortium to Prevent Child Abuse and Governor's Office through the Office of Criminal Justice Planning.