UNC School of Social Work

Our School is ranked #3 in the nation!

US News & World Report has released its graduate school rankings for 2019, and UNC School of Social Work is ranked third place in the nation! This is the highest ranking our School has received to date, according to Dean Gary Bowen, and it marks an increase from our previous fifth-place ranking.

Five U.S. schools tied for the third-place rank, with each receiving the same score as its peers -- we are ranked equally with University of Washington, University of Chicago, University of California-Berkley and Columbia.

We're really proud to earn this national recognition of excellence. Congratulations to our faculty, students, alumni, staff and partners on this acknowledgement of our achievements! You can find the list of all ranked schools, along with the methodology used to determine the rankings, at the US News & World Report website.

In The News

Mourning Maeda Galinsky, a legend at our School

Maeda Galinsky, Ph.D., a long-time social work scholar, researcher, teacher and mentor, died on Sept. 9, 2019. She was 84.

Known as the “Grand Dame of the School of Social Work,” Galinsky retired from the UNC School of Social Work in 2015 following 50 years of service. A pioneer scholar for her work with groups and with intervention research, Galinsky was the longest-serving member of the School’s faculty.

Tate Talks annual series kicks off on Sept. 26

Carl Castro, Ph.D., will present "Military Transitions and Veteran Health and Wellbeing" for the first Tate Talk of the 2019–2020 academic year.

The talk is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 26, 12:15-1:45 p.m. at the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work. It is free and open to the public.

Castro is an associate professor at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at the University of Southern California. He serves as director for the Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families and chairs a NATO research group on military veteran transitions.

Goings to lead $1.5 million SAMHSA project

Trenette Clark Goings, Ph.D. A new $1.5 million intervention research project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is designed to help prevent substance abuse among youth in North Carolina’s rural communities, with project activities centered in Robeson County.

UNC School of Social Work associate professor Trenette Clark Goings, Ph.D., will develop “Substance Use Prevention and Education for Robeson (SUPER)” with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The five-year project will begin in October 2019.

New $1.35 million grant to prepare social workers responding to opioid crisis

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work is preparing social workers to respond to the nation’s opioid crisis, with support from a new $1.35 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through its Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Lisa de Saxe Zerden, Ph.D., will serve as principal investigator for the project, working closely with project coordinator Meryl Kanfer.