Selection of Dr. Jorge Delva as Dean of the BU School of Social Work
From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer
As you know, last fall we commenced a national-level search for a new Dean of the Boston University School of Social Work to succeed Dean Gail Steketee upon her retirement after 12 years as Dean and more than three decades as a member of the faculty. After a rigorous and competitive search process that considered several strong candidates, President Brown and I are very pleased to announce that we have selected and come to terms with Dr. Jorge Delva as the next Dean of the School of Social Work.
Dr. Delva is the Kristine A. Siefert Collegiate Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan. He also serves as Director of the Community Engagement Core of the University of Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) – an NIH center for Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) – and is a Faculty Associate of the Latina/o Studies program in the Department of American Culture. Dr. Delva’s multi- and trans-disciplinary research seeks to reduce health disparities and improve the lives of low-income and racial and ethnic minority populations. His scholarship has made substantial contributions to advancing our understanding of psychosocial-cultural mechanisms associated with substance-using behaviors among Hispanic/Latino, African American, and American Indian populations, as well as with populations in Latin America. Dr. Delva has obtained significant support from federal agencies and private foundations for his research domestically, including the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and internationally by the Swedish Council on Medical Tobacco Research and the Organization of American States Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission.
Dr. Delva is a national leader in the field of social work. With a portfolio of more than 130 publications and nearly 200 presentations, he is recognized as a high-impact scholar among all Fellows of the Society for Social Work Research, to which he was elected in 2015. From 2005 to 2009, he served as Editor-in-Chief of Social Work, the flagship publication of the National Association of Social Work – a 130,000-member organization of practitioners. Dr. Delva has been a mentor to many doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty in the U.S. and globally, including Chile, China, and Ukraine. He has also served as an international accreditation reviewer for sociology and social work programs in Chile and as a reviewer for a number of federal agency grant programs, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Department of Defense Medical Research Program, the Health Research and Services Administration, and the NIH. He is a co-author of the 2016 report, A Framework for Educating Health Professionals to Address the Social Determinants of Health, published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that outlines a conceptual model for the education of health professionals to better address the social determinants of health worldwide.
Dr. Delva received his BSW (1989) and MSW (1992), as well as his Ph.D. in Social Welfare (1996) from the University of Hawaii. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in drug epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University, he held a faculty appointment at the School of Social Work at Florida State University. He joined the University of Michigan in 2002. At Michigan, he served as founding co-director of the Vivian A. and James L. Curtis Research and Training Center, Associate Dean for Research, and Associate Dean for Educational Programs in the School of Social Work. He also served as Associate Director of Educational Programs at the University of Michigan Center for Global Health and has been appointed as a Faculty Associate at several university centers and institutes, including the School of Public Health Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health and the Institute for Social Research.
We are incredibly excited for Dr. Delva to join Boston University. It is clear that his scholarly accomplishments, leadership experience nationally and globally, and strong track record of collaborations to compete successfully for external support herald tremendous opportunities for continued excellence at BU SSW. I will be making a formal announcement to the broader University community in the fall at the start of the academic year, but wanted to let you know of the successful completion of the search.
Dr. Delva will assume the role of Dean on January 1, 2018. During this period of transition, I am pleased to announce that Professor Judith Gonyea has agreed to serve as Dean ad interim effective August 1, 2017. Given her significant contributions to the School and to the University, I am confident that she will be an excellent steward of the School as we prepare for Dr. Delva’s arrival. Please join me in thanking Dr. Gonyea for her service in this capacity.
I also want to thank you for your support and engagement with this process, and recognize the members of the Search Advisory Committee, especially your colleagues Hyeouk Hahm, Renee Spencer, and Judith Gonyea – who served as an outstanding Chair. I am grateful for their unwavering commitment and dedication to the search effort and to the School of Social Work.
Selection of Dr. Jorge Delva as Dean of the BU School of Social Work – 6.22.17