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 assume the role of dean on July 1, 2025. Professor Stone’s appointment as dean will mark the latest chapter in her two decades of service to Berkeley Social Welfare.
Bridging boundaries through research
Professor Stone’s research focuses on advancing equitable policies, routines, and practices in school settings. She employs a community-engaged approach to research, developing research questions with community partners to ensure that the knowledge produced reflects the community’s interests.
Professor Stone’s scholarship reflects Berkeley Social Welfare’s multidisciplinary lens. With Emily Ozer, Professor of Community Health Sciences at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Professor Stone co-founded a research-practice partnership between UC Berkeley and the San Francisco Unified School District. The partnership leverages multiple data sources to identify strategies to address student chronic absenteeism. The initiative received the 2023 Chancellor’s Campus-Community Partnership Award. Professors Ozer and Stone are supported by a William T. Grant Foundation Institutional Challenge Grant, and jointly funded by The Spencer Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Professor Ozer shares: "I have worked closely with Susan Stone since 2019 as co-founders of our Research Practice Partnership with San Francisco Unified School District to reduce student inequalities and our campus-wide initiative to strengthen Berkeley’s long term societal impact through community-partnered research. The same strengths that make Susan an exemplary community engaged scholar and social worker make her an outstanding dean in these times: her intellectual and strategic brilliance, ethics, courage, collaborative spirit, humor, and unwavering commitment to our Berkeley principles of community."
Leading at Berkeley and in the profession
Since joining the faculty in 2001, Professor Stone has served in numerous leadership roles within Berkeley Social Welfare. She served as co-chair of the Master of Social Welfare program, Chair of the Faculty, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and, most recently, as Interim Dean. Additionally, Professor Stone serves on the Board of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, a society dedicated to advancing excellence in the social work profession.
"Susan is an excellent choice to serve as Dean for the School of Social Welfare,” said Linda M. Burton, former Dean of Berkeley Social Welfare and Eugene and Rose Kleiner Chair for the Study of Processes, Practices, and Policies in Aging. “In her previous role as Associate Dean of the School of Social Welfare, Susan engaged in herculean efforts to help move the School successfully through turbulent times and position it to reach new heights. She is a brilliant scholar and trusted and loyal colleague with a two-decade deep commitment to the School. The School will soar under her leadership!"
Looking ahead
Over her upcoming term, Professor Stone plans to continue elevating Berkeley Social Welfare’s dedication to the public good, prioritizing the education of social workers committed to communities most affected by social work policies, programs, and practices. Shares Professor Stone: “I look forward to working with the Berkeley Social Welfare community to amplify our excellent faculty scholarship, shape the next generation of social workers, and reaffirm our commitment to the values of the profession. I hope to work with our alums, local communities, our students and faculty to demonstrate how powerful social work is when it spans boundaries.”