Two BU deans, the School of Education’s Hardin Coleman and the School of Social Work’s Gail Steketee, have announced that they will step down.

Coleman, who led SED for eight years, will leave his administrative role at the end of this academic year to pursue his other passions, which include fundraising and bringing groups of boys from low-income neighborhoods to Wabun, a canoe and wilderness camp Coleman attended as a boy. The camp, which is about 300 miles north of Toronto, trains children to become leaders.

After a sabbatical, Coleman will return to BU as a professor, focusing his research on the social factors that facilitate minority student achievement. He will also train future school counselors and teach family therapy to master’s-level students, and he will take over as director of SED’s Center for Character & Social Responsibility, which tackles issues of social and emotional character development in schools.

“I’ll be able to focus on things that, as a dean, I value, but that I haven’t had time to follow through on,” he says.

Coleman is credited with transforming SED, strengthening the school’s academic programs, and promoting a culture of enhanced research. Six years ago, the school’s faculty brought in almost $3 million in research funding; last year that number had increased to almost $8 million.

Coleman has played an active role in improving urban education, particularly in Boston, where he is vice chair of the Boston School Committee, and has served as cochair of the Mayor’s External Advisory Committee on Improving School Choice and as cochair of the Quality Schools Work Group.

A Search Advisory Committee is expected to make recommendations for the new dean by mid-March.

Gail Steketee greatly expanded teaching and research at SSW. To the outside world, she’s probably best known as an expert on hoarding, having been interviewed many times about her book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things. Photo by Vernon Doucette

Steketee, who plans to retire, will stay on as SSW dean either until the end of the academic year or until her successor is selected.

“This feels like a perfect time to step down because of the great position the school is in,” she says. “I am very proud of the school and the accomplishments of the faculty and staff, as well as the input from our smart students and our dedicated alumni. These are great people who do great things to make an impact for those who need our profession the most.”

Steketee greatly expanded teaching and research. To the outside world, she’s probably best known as an expert on hoarding, having been interviewed many times about her book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, coauthored with Randy Frost.

Steketee has led the school since becoming interim dean in 2005. Three years later she assumed the position of dean. Under her deanship, SSW rose from 22nd to 12th in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of social work schools, and raised $22 million as part of the Campaign for BU. The fundraising endowed more scholarships for students and enabled the creation of the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health, which seeks to improve health care nationally and globally by combining medical and social work insights.

One of her proudest accomplishments is the start four years ago of SSW’s online master’s program in social work, one of the nation’s first. With instruction on campus, online, and at three satellite sites, she says, “we are now working to create synergies across our formats so students can move reasonably flexibly across them, to take the courses and specializations they want and need.”

Steketee intends to remain active in professional organizations. She is president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and vice president of the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare.

A committee will conduct a national search for a new dean, with a target date of making recommendations in May.