Tim Dickel

Professor of Education, Primary Appointment, Creighton College of Arts and Sciences

Professor of Psychiatry, Secondary Appointment, Creighton University School of Medicine

Co-Director, Creighton Study of Violence across the Life Span, Creighton University

More about me:

I have been a faculty member in Education at Creighton since 1976. Right now, I am teaching full time and also doing research with a faculty member from the Department of Psychiatry. My research interest is violence, and in March 2008, the University designated the Creighton Study of Violence across the Life Span, and I am the co-director of that research effort. My teaching is in our master’s program in counseling where I am responsible for courses in life span development, appraisal, group counseling, community mental health, and family counseling. Within the teacher education program, I teach both the undergraduate and graduate courses in child and adolescent development. I have also taught the introduction to personal counseling course in Creighton’s Christian Spirituality Program.

I have been married to Gail, an art teacher in a local Catholic elementary school, since 1973, and we have three children. Our oldest is married, and she is a medical social worker at a local hospital. She delivered our first grandchild in May 2007, and being a grandparent is absolutely wonder-filled!! Our middle child is in his second year as principal of a co-ed Catholic high school in Indiana, and our youngest is in his second year as a fifth grade teacher for the Omaha Public Schools. Gail and I love to travel as well as look at and make art. I am not the artist that she is, but I truly enjoy the art world.
Writing these reflections:

When I was asked to join the group of writers of the daily reflections, I was both flattered and apprehensive. I had never done something like this, and I was not sure how to start. I began to think about what makes homilies or scriptural worthwhile for me. I concluded that worth comes from the heart, and not from the head, and shared experiences are the ones that capture my attention and imagination. I get the most out of a homily when a priest talks about what the Word of God means to him, when he really shares himself, and when he does not get lost in his head or in theory. That is what I will try to do with my reflections. The style will be from my heart after lots of prayer and thought.
Other links to me:

e-mail: ctdickel@creighton.edu