Director's Welcome

The 2019-20 academic calendar has been a challenging year for our school. Our students, faculty and staff have shown incredible resilience and creativity through many difficult events. We quickly shifted gears and adapted to a global pandemic. We have done our best to respond to all the social injustice happening in the world. As social workers, it is incredibly difficult to watch as our nation’s leadership makes decisions that directly negate all the efforts we do in the world. This, however, is a time when social work education is the most critical.  

Despite the circumstances, we still have much to be thankful for. In the past year we have hosted several virtual events including our Conversations for Change series, where community leaders spoke to the current social justice issues, voting  initiatives, and many wellness seminars in response to COVID-19. We also successfully hosted a virtual ceremony for our graduating class of 2020.  A faculty member, Dr. Jacquelyn Lee was awarded the Chancellor’s Teaching Award this fall and we welcomed three new members to our social work family, Drs. Tiffany Lane, David Conley, and Helen Taylor Yates. Through the diligent work of our faculty and staff, we also successfully completed another accreditation cycle.  

This year has been challenging, but it also provides space for very important growth. Despite all that is happening in the world, we are proud to see our school show strength and dedication to the practice of social work. More than ever, the world needs more social workers. 
 
Sincerely,

Stacey Kolomer