Dr. Barbara White, dean of The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, has been selected as an inaugural board member and fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, a society of scholars and practitioners dedicated to achieving excellence in the fields.
The academy, formed last month and aided by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), will have a virtual office to be located initially at Case Western Reserve University. White is one of six inaugural fellows.
White is a former president of CSWE, the profession’s primary educational organization, and also is former president of the 155,000-member National Association of Social Workers (NASW). She has been dean of the School of Social Work since 1993 and holds the Centennial Professorship in Leadership. In 2003, she received the NASW Presidential Award for Leadership in Social Work Education.
The new academy will work to inform social policy by serving as a frontline source of information for the social work profession as well as the U.S. Congress and other government agencies and non-governmental entities charged with advancing the public good. It also will promote examination of social policy and application of research to determine alternatives and impacts on society.