News

This May, leaders of Berkeley Social Welfare student groups celebrated a year of building community and advocating for change....Read more about Celebrating Student Excellence

Ambassador Ruth A. Davis, a Berkeley Social Welfare MSW alum whose remarkable foreign service career spanned decades and continents, passed away on May 3, 2025.

"...Diplomats must employ in their work many of the same skills that make...Read more about In Memoriam: Ambassador Ruth A. Davis (MSW '68)

[Soccer is] such a friendly way that immigrants can connect to one another, and for an hour and a half on the field, let go of the mental stress that is burdening their day.

— Kristina Lovato, Assistant Professor and Director of the Center on Immigration and Child Welfare Initiative...Read more about As safe spaces shrink, immigrant youth find solace in “the beautiful game”; Kristina Lovato in El Timpano

Without proper guardrails, artificial intelligence runs the risk of replicating human bias and limiting broad benefits. As the healthcare industry increasingly integrates AI, researchers have the opportunity to curb bias by ensuring their studies include often-overlooked...Read more about Can artificial intelligence make healthcare more accessible?

Approximately 9% of sexual and gender minorities globally are exposed to “conversion therapy,” or organized...Read more about How Canada made it a crime to perpetrate “conversion therapy” with Dr. Travis Salway

"Community members see researchers come and go, and they disappear after data collection, leaving nothing meaningful."

Their work exemplifies a growing brand of research known as community-...Read more about The complex story of how the pandemic impacted the Asian American diaspora; Julian Chun-Chung Chow in UC Berkeley News

Restricting access to education would also deepen social divisions and negatively affect the entire American economy by exacerbating marginalization and impoverishment...

— Kristina Lovato, Assistant Professor and director of the Center on Immigration and Child Welfare...Read more about How hardline anti-immigrant policies are threatening the right to education; Kristina Lovato in the The Guardian

The mental health needs of unaccompanied minors are severely impacted upon resettlement in the U.S.... They’ve dreamed of being in the U.S. for the ability to go to college, the ability to send money back home, but once they arrive here, there’s a different reality and they realize that...Read more about Soaring Housing Costs Make Life Even More Challenging for Oakland’s Unaccompanied Minors; Kristina Lovato in KQED

It’s not the inability to get a ticket to go home that’s the issue. For most people who are homeless, it’s actually having a safe place to go home to begin with, as well as having the adequate services to treat trauma, and mental health, and access to quality substance use treatment.

...Read more about San José Adopts Controversial Plan to Bus Homeless People Out of the City; Jamie Chang in KQED article

It’s “really important” for every family who could be affected by immigration enforcement to have what agencies and organizations call “a family preparedness plan” in case of an emergency.

— Kristina Lovato, Assistant Professor and Director of the Center on Immigration...Read more about ICE, Schools and Children: What Families Should Know; Kristina Lovato in KQED

Berkeley Social Welfare is pleased to announce that Susan Stone, Catherine Mary and Eileen Clare Hutto Professor of Social Services in Public Education and current interim dean, will...Read more about Announcing our Dean: Susan Stone

Dear Public Health and Social Welfare Community:

It is with great sadness that the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and School of Social Welfare announce the passing of Dr. Lonnie...Read more about Mourning the death of Lonnie Snowden

When:
Friday, January 17th from 8:15 PM - 10:00 PM

...Read more about Society for Social Work and Research 2025: Pacific Reception & Berkeley Social Welfare Presenters

The Bridge Builder Award recognizes...Read more about Congratulations to our Fall 2024 student awardees!

On October 29th, as the final October 2024's Cultivating Community in Challenging Times Event Series, Berkeley Social Welfare hosted a hybrid event with ...Read more about Hybrid Event: The Fundamentals of Strategic Advocacy with Charles Lewis

From Carceral to Abolition Feminism: Implications for Social Welfare - An Online Keynote with Keynote Speaker Mimi Kim (PhD '14) during the celebration of Haviland's 100th year anniversary.

Mimi Kim is Associate Professor of Social Work at California State University, Long Beach and a...Read more about Haviland 100 Keynote: From Carceral to Abolition Feminism: Implications for Social Welfare with Mimi Kim (PhD '14)

As Berkeley Social Welfare celebrated the 100th anniversary of our home, Haviland Hall, a panel reflected on the evolution of social work—and what's ahead for the future of the profession.

Panelists:

Kicking off Berkeley Social Welfare's "Cultivating Community in Challenging Times Event Series" on October 1st, bestselling author Andrew Bridge sat down with with Jill Duerr Berrick, Distinguished Professor and the Zellerbach Family Foundation Professor of Social Welfare, about his newly...Read more about Author Talk: Andrew Bridge discusses The Child Catcher in conversation with Jill Duerr Berrick

Sabrina Valadez-Rios is a community educator, violence prevention advocate, lifelong learner—and now an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley Social Welfare. Read about her path to Berkeley Social Welfare.

My first...Read more about Creating space for healing: Sabrina Valadez-Rios

Social workers navigate complex, politically-charged issues that impact human and collective well-being.

Leading up to the November 2024 election, Berkeley Social Welfare hosted a series of events designed to build our community of learners and explore short- and long-term social...Read more about Revisit our Cultivating Community in Challenging Times Series