Welcome

As the 2025-26 academic year begins, the work led by our social work researchers has never been more important. Despite the outside challenges posed to our School and field, our researchers are still thriving, evident in the more than $30 million in external awards granted to the School of Social Work during the 2025 fiscal year. I’m proud of the work our students, faculty and staff are leading in the pursuit of advancing equity, transforming systems and improving lives.

I’d like to first start off by introducing you to our incoming associate dean for research and faculty development, Eric Rice. Eric will join UNC in January, bringing with him a wealth of knowledge and experience from his 16 years at the University of Southern California. There, he served as a professor and associate dean for research at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and as founding co-director for the USC Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society. His work has led to nearly 200 peer-reviewed articles, grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and Army Research Office, among others, and an induction as a fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research. We’re excited to welcome him to Chapel Hill this winter.

We’ve had numerous researchers awarded grants this summer and I’d like to highlight some of our recent recipients:

• Melissa Lippold, Associate Professor: Melissa received a five-year, $3.5 million R01 award from the National Institutes of Health to explore the connection between adolescent stress and the cardiovascular health of parents, building on her past work examining the crossover effect between youth stressors and parental well-being.
• Rebecca Rebbe, Assistant Professor: Rebecca was awarded a $120,000 grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration for her project that will use an existing database to characterize CPS interactions and identify health care services access during foster care placements for children with autism/DD. Her findings will determine if there is a need for specialized services and resources regarding CPS for children with autism/DD.
• C. Joy Stewart, Research Associate Professor: Joy was awarded $225,000 from Duke University’s Center for Child and Family Health to evaluate the Resource Parent Curriculum Trainer Pathway statewide scaling system administered by the center.
• Bridgette Thom, Assistant Professor: Bridgette was awarded a four-year, $790,988 K01 Research Scientist Development Award from the National Cancer Institute to conduct an assessment of a proposed screening tool and referral program that will proactively identify cancer-related financial hardship in patients. The pilot assessment will screen patients using her I-ACCESS tool at diverse clinical settings and connect those whom the tool deems at risk of facing financial hardship with education, counseling and resources.

I look forward to seeing the amazing knowledge and interventions developed from their work.

In the latest installment of our digital Impact Report, we provide an update on research in a variety of areas, including global research into economic security and HIV care; mental health care and preventing youth suicide; health disparities among Black women; and mental health services to help people with serious mental illness avoid involvement in the criminal legal system.

I’d also encourage you to visit past installments of our Impact Report, all gathered together on this site, to learn more about the cutting-edge contributions from our School’s research centers, institutes and labs; and the individual and collaborative scholarship found in our programs around health, mental health and behavioral health, economic security, children, youth and family well-being, older adults and long-term care, and system- and service-level research.