Appointment of Dr. Jorge Delva as Dean of the BU School of Social Work
From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer
President Brown and I are very pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Jorge Delva as Dean and Professor in the Boston University School of Social Work, beginning on January 1, 2018. Earlier this summer, I shared the news of Dr. Delva’s selection to be the Dean as the result of a competitive national-level search. I’m delighted now to confirm his appointment following the completion of all formal processes including approval by the Board of Trustees.
Dr. Delva arrives at BU from the University of Michigan, where he is the Kristine A. Siefert Collegiate Professor of Social Work. He has also served as Director of the Community Engagement Core of the University of Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research – a National Institute of Health (NIH) center for Clinical and Translational Science Awards – 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 and economically marginalized communities. 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 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. This year he was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, an honor society of American scholars and practitioners in social work and social welfare. 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. In addition to his administrative position, he holds a faculty appointment as a tenured Professor of Social Work. 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 know that you join me in warmly welcoming Dr. Delva to BU.
I would also like to express gratitude to the members of the Dean Search Advisory Committee for their outstanding work and give special thanks to the Search Committee Chair and Dean ad interim Judith Gonyea for her committed stewardship over the last six months and for her significant efforts in helping to ensure a smooth transition in leadership.
Appointment of Dr. Jorge Delva as Dean of the BU School of Social Work – 11.29.17