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School of Social Work dean named AASWSW fellow

by Matthew Smith

For the second consecutive year, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work added a member to the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare’s (AASWSW) honorific society, as Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson was recognized as a member of the AASWSW’s 2025 fellows class.

Denby-Brinson was inducted during the 2025 Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) 29th annual conference in Seattle, Wash.

UNC School of Social Work Dean Ramon Denby-Brinson shows off AASWSW fellows plaque
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson was named a member of the 2025 American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare’s fellows class.

“It’s truly an honor to be recognized by the academy, but it’s one that wouldn’t be possible without the support of my fellow researchers and the families that we connect with every day,” Denby-Brinson said. “I’ve had the pleasure to work with transformational leaders, scholars and instructors over my 30-year career and this recognition is as much theirs as it is mine.”

She became the eighth Tar Heel to be named a AASWSW fellow. She joined nine others in receiving the designation this year.

The AASWSW selection committee nominates fellows based on their accomplishments in social work practice or their influence on social good and policy.

Denby-Brinson joined the School as its 13th dean in August 2021 and is the University’s Kuralt Distinguished Professor of Public Welfare Policy. During her academic career, she has assisted countless faculty in launching their research programs, developing research centers and institutes, and securing funding to advance impactful research.

Along with her academic and administrative duties, Denby-Brison serves as the president of SSWR. She has formerly held leadership positions at The Ohio State University, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and maintains her licensed social worker (LSW) and Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW) credentials.

Her scholarly interests include policy, programming and treatment issues relevant to children and families, child welfare, children’s mental health, and culturally specific service delivery. Her research portfolio includes more than $34 million in research funding from federal and state agencies, foundations and university awards.

With a career-long dedication to improving the lives of families, she is one of the nation’s leading scholars in kinship care. Denby-Brinson is the project director of KinCarolina, a five-year intervention study funded by The Duke Endowment. The program provides comprehensive, evidence-based support to kinship caregivers — people who are relatives or close family friends — raising children with disabilities in South Carolina.

“I hope that my research — and the interventions its informed — has made an impact on this group that is so underrepresented and underserved,” Denby-Brinson said. “It’s really all about building protective factors for both children and their caregivers. If caregivers are not supported — if their whole self is not being taken care of — what does that mean for those they serve? We continue to work to better outcomes for children, their caregivers and their families.”

Past AASWSW fellows who were inducted while at UNC include Gary Bowen (’16), Mark Fraser (’10), Matthew Owen Howard (’13), Rebecca Macy (’19), Emily Putnam-Hornstein (’24), Mark F. Testa (’17) and Sheryl Zimmerman (’12).


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