Welcome
Today, our faculty empower the UNC School of Social Work’s leadership in intervention research with potent real-world impact on policies, programs and practices.
DEAN RAMONA DENBY-BRINSON, Ph.D., ACSW, LMSW
The Collaborative Impact of Our Research and Community Engagement
As I prepare to welcome researchers to the 2024 Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Conference from my new position as incoming president of the Society, I’m thrilled to share with you the most recent collaborative work of some of the world-class researchers who invited me to join them as their dean in 2021 at UNC School of Social Work.
Building on more than 100 years of tradition, the history of our School’s research program goes back to the mid- to late 1980s, when then Dean John Turner, UNC-Chapel Hill’s first Black dean, and a team of visionary leaders including my predecessor, future Dean Gary Bowen, had the foresight to begin building what has become a research program that is the bedrock of one of the nation’s best social work schools.
Today, our faculty empower the UNC School of Social Work’s leadership in intervention research with potent real-world impact on policies, programs and practices.
In the first installment of this digital Impact Report, released during the January 2023 SSWR Conference in Phoenix, Ariz., we introduced you to the cutting-edge contributions of the School’s research centers, institutes and labs. The 2023 fall semester installment focused on contributions related to the bookends of the age spectrum: our programs focused on Child, Youth, and Family Well-Being; and on Older Adults and Long-term Care.
Prepared to coincide with the January 2024 SSWR Conference in the nation’s capital, this third installment focuses on two more of the five broadly defined research programs of strength at our School: Health, Mental Health and Behavioral Health and Economic Security.
The first program highlights researchers evaluating family justice centers created to support survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual violence; steering a social worker-led behavioral health research center; and using community-informed methods to combat the impact of stigmas on HIV prevention and testing among Latino sexual minority men.
The second area of focus looks at how researchers are tackling financial hardship among young adult patients and survivors of cancer; mapping how structural racism affects housing in North Carolina’s Triangle region; and addressing financial hardship in sub-Saharan Africa.
New to the Team
Finally, please join me in welcoming three talented professors who joined our School for the 2023–24 academic year: Associate Professor Hsun-Ta Hsu, Assistant Professor Bridgette Thom, and Assistant Professor Tess Thompson. Thompson and Thom are both gaining national recognition for their independent work in social work and cancer, and both were hired by the School in collaboration with the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Hsu, whose interests include health promotion, homelessness and housing; the study of social networks; and artificial intelligence applications in social science interventions, holds a secondary appointment at the UNC School of Data Science and Society.
Early in the 2024 fall semester, we look forward to bringing you the final installment in this series: an overview of our System- and Service-level Research program.
With warm regards,
Ramona Denby-Brinson, Ph.D., ACSW, LMSW
Dean and Wallace H. Kuralt, Sr. Distinguished Professor of Public Welfare Policy and Administration
UNC School of Social Work
Advancing equity. Transforming systems. Improving lives.
UNC School of Social Work
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building
325 Pittsboro Street | Campus Box 3550
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3550