Faculty Directory

Premela Deck, JD, PhD, is a part-time faculty member at the Boston College School of Social Work. She is a forensic social worker and family law attorney. Premela’s research focuses on high conflict families, resist and refuse dynamics, parent competencies, and forensic social work during separation and divorce.

Her current research projects include the development and psychometric testing of a high conflict measurement tool for divorcing parents of minor children; evaluation of the empirical evidence for conducting remote child custody evaluations; and interprofessional collaboration between legal and social work professionals.

Premela’s research is supported by her experience as a family law attorney and former clerk to the Supreme Court of North Carolina, as well as her forensic social work direct practice. She employs a number of interventions for high-conflict families, including parent coordination, custody evaluations, and psychoeducation.

She has taught courses on program evaluation, social welfare policy, macro practice, and research methods at the graduate schools of social work at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill; Boston College; and Bridgewater University.