Ramona Denby-Brinson, Ph.D., began her appointment as the 13th Dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work in August 2021.
The first Black woman to serve in this role, Denby-Brinson is a proven leader in faculty development and mentorship. The Kuralt Distinguished Professor of Public Welfare Policy and Administration has assisted countless faculty in launching their research programs, developing research centers and institutes, and securing funding to advance impactful research during her 30-year academic career.
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. With a career-long dedication to improving the lives of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) families, she is one of the nation’s leading scholars in kinship care.
While at Carolina, Denby-Brinson led the school to new heights in several critical university ranking metrics, including as the No. 2 public school of social work, the nation’s No. 4 overall school of social work, and a fourth place ranking in the National Science Foundation’s annual Higher Education Research and Development Survey. The School reported nearly $19 million in R&D expenditures in the latest survey (2022), up more than $3 million from the School’s previous record.
She has taken on numerous leadership roles, including serving as the president of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) from 2024-26. Additionally, she was named the 2024 Carl A. Scott Lecturer at the Council on Social Work Education’s 70th Annual Program Meeting and was selected to the University of North Carolina System’s Executive Leadership Institute. The 10-month program is designed to build the next generation of top leadership from within the UNC System.
She led the charge to convene a statewide social work coalition, bringing together representatives from nearly all 25 social work programs across North Carolina to address workforce challenges in the state.
She has previously served in leadership roles as the treasurer of SSWR, as president of the National Association of Social Workers Nevada Chapter, and as a board member for the National Family Preservation Network, North Carolina-based Children’s Home Society, and Specialized Alternatives for Families and Youth (SAFY) among other offices.
Recognized as one of the preeminent national experts in culturally adapted child welfare services, Denby-Brinson has continued to carry on her research. In June 2023, she received $1.7 million from The Duke Endowment for a study on kinship caregivers raising children with special needs. The five-year intervention aims to strengthen support for these caregivers.
To date, Denby-Brinson has been awarded nearly $40 million in competitive grants, including federal funding to conduct research related to child and family well-being from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Health Resources and Services Administration; and the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health.
Denby-Brinson has published extensively and, in 2014, received the Senator Harry Reid Silver State Research Award in recognition of her research, community engagement and response to the needs of vulnerable communities and populations. An expert in child welfare services, Denby-Brinson published the book, “Kinship Care: Increasing Child Well-Being through Practice, Policy, and Research,” in 2015. She has also authored, co-authored, or edited eight additional books, including the seminal work, “African American Children and Families in Child Welfare: Cultural Adaptation of Services.”
Denby-Brinson came to UNC-Chapel Hill from The Ohio State University’s College of Social Work, where she served as professor and associate dean of academic affairs. Previously, she served on the faculty of Arizona State University as associate dean of research with the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions and professor in the School of Social Work.
She served for 20 years at UNLV in various academic, research, and administrative roles. Denby-Brinson began her career at the University of Tennessee Knoxville as an assistant professor and researcher at the first-ever NIH-funded social work research center on children’s mental health services.
In leadership roles at The Ohio State University and the University of Nevada Las Vegas, she grew the enrollment of underrepresented minority and first-generation undergraduate students (32% increase) and graduate students (22%). She led graduate curriculum redesign work to prepare practitioners to practice using an inclusive, antiracist, social justice–oriented curriculum.
She was one of the co-creators of UNLV’s The Lincy Institute and was the founding director of its Social Science Research division and Senior Resident Scholar. In six years, she established significant community partnerships between all levels of local government and industry, business, philanthropy, nonprofit, federal entities, and the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Throughout her professional career, Denby-Brinson has demonstrated a commitment to communities through work that not only fosters intellectual discoveries but also builds the capacity of nonprofit and community agencies and organizations to address local and national mental health and child welfare challenges. She has used curricular innovations to prepare and equip students academically with solution- and evidence-oriented approaches that address protracted and emerging social challenges.
Denby-Brinson lives by the ethos that community-engaged research must be usable and have measurable impact. She has devoted her career to helping others develop their research programs and skillfully engage at the local, regional, and national levels. In multiple states, she, her teams, and the scholars she has supported have established programs and services and helped multiple organizations build capacity and sustain their services. In her position at Carolina, she looks forward to expanding and strengthening partnerships within the campus and broader community.
She is a licensed social worker and, prior to her academic career, she served children and families in various social service settings, including medical social work, substance use disorders counseling, family counseling, and public guardianship.
Denby-Brinson earned her Bachelor of Social Work degree at Arizona State University, Master of Social Work from UNLV, and doctoral degree from The Ohio State University.
Born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, she has nine siblings. She and her husband, Jesse Brinson, have three children: Avery, Zaila and Jesse Aaron.
