Dear Campus Leaders and the School of Social Welfare Community,
We are pleased to announce that Susan Stone has agreed to serve as interim dean of the School of Social Welfare for the 2024–25 academic year. Her appointment will be effective as of July 1, 2024.
Susan is the Catherine Mary and Eileen Clare Hutto Professor of Social Services in Public Education at the School of Social Welfare. She received all of her degrees from the University of Chicago: a Bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Science and Master’s and PhD degrees from the School of Social Service Administration. She joined the Berkeley School of Social Welfare in 2001. Susan is well known for her research on the educational arrangements of underserved student subgroups, school-based health and social service delivery systems, and school social work practices. In 2020, she was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. She was elected to the Academy’s Board in 2023.
Throughout her career, Susan has been actively involved in several research-practice partnerships with school districts in Chicago and in the Bay Area. The San Francisco Unified District and UC Berkeley Research Practice Partnership that she co-founded with professor Emily Ozer of the School of Public Health was recently awarded the 2023 Chancellor’s Campus-Community Partnership Award. Her role in this partnership, supported by the Spencer and William T. Grant Foundations, focuses on generating evidence to inform strategies to reduce rates of chronic absenteeism among middle and high school students.
Susan has served as the School of Social Welfare’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs since March 2020. In that role, she has been instrumental in two successful re-accreditation processes related to the MSW program: in 2021, credentials in school social work and child welfare and attendance (California Commission on Teacher Credentialing) and, in 2022, reaffirmation of overall MSW program accreditation (Council on Social Work Education).
Please join us in congratulating Susan on this new role. Linda Burton will continue as dean through the end of June, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank her for her committed and capable leadership of the School of Social Welfare.
Sincerely,
Carol T. Christ
Chancellor
Benjamin E. Hermalin
Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost