VCU School of Social Work

The VCU School of Social Work’s greatest strength is its faculty. Faculty members are dedicated to superb classroom and field instruction while simultaneously conducting some of the most respected scholarship in the social work profession. Faculty members bring diverse insights and perspectives from their experiences at different practice settings from across the country. Additionally, the School of Social Work faculty rank consistently among the highest for faculty productivity. They are well known for their textbooks, adopted in B.S.W., M.S.W. and Ph.D. courses across the country. As a result, the VCU School of Social Work is ranked 11th among the nation’s top social work programs as recognized by U.S. News & World Report.

The signature of the school’s research and scholarship agenda is collaboration and community services. By far, most research conducted at the school is community-based or community-focused, and is geared toward understanding and improving human services in the community. One of the more recent accomplishments in the school was the growth of the community-based research initiatives that has provided a wide array of services to our community agencies. These services have included program evaluation, program design, service delivery and consultation. We currently have contractual agreements with couple dozen agencies and have received quite a few Community Associates Awards for other projects.

The school’s international activities, both on campus and abroad, are endeavors developed to further enhance students’ global perspective in social work education. International collaborative partnerships have been built over the years through such programs as the Education Abroad Programs, student internship exchanges, service learning opportunities, presentations at international conferences and other activities that have specifically had an international focus.

This section highlights some of the recent teaching, scholarship and community engagement endeavors accomplished by the school’s faculty.