Greetings from Dr. Bullock, Department Head of Social Work

Greetings!

On July 1, 2013, it was my greatest honor to be appointed the Department Head of Social Work, of which I am a 1990 BSW alumna. It is rewarding to return home to North Carolina and to give back to the institution that helped to shape and prepare me as a practitioner, researcher and scholar.  NC State equipped me with what I needed to earn a Master of Social Work degree from Columbia University in New York and a Ph.D in Sociology and Social Work from Boston University. There have been numerous graduates of NC State’s Department of Social Work who have similar stories to tell and we want to hear from you. The NC State Department of Social Work Newsletter is a venue from which Social Work speaks. A few updates are provided here and there are many more on our website, as well as on the CHASS website.

This year marks our 40th anniversary of being a CSWE accredited social work program.  Our BSW program was one of the first in the state of North Carolina. In 2005, we began our MSW program and both programs were re-accredited in 2013. Over the years, we have grown in size, structure and functioning as an academic unit. This growth and expansion would not have been possible without the success of our graduates.  In offering the BSW and MSW degrees, we seek to provide students with the knowledge, values, and skills to respond competently to the aspirations and service needs of diverse populations and to the contexts that shape the needs of the clients and service delivery systems locally, nationally and globally. Our students are educated and trained in a generalist social work model with particular emphases on diversity, social justice and community engagement.

Our community of faculty scholars represents a wealth of knowledge and expertise. Please take the time to read about them in this newsletter. We are very involved in micro, mezzo, and macro level practice–conducting research, providing consultation, supervision, clinical services and training in health and human service, the judicial system, child welfare, aging and mental health, community nonprofits and veteran services. Collectively, our students, alumni, and faculty are changing the world through social action and community engagement. In this newsletter you will read about student and alumni highlights, faculty highlights, and awards and research.

I hope you enjoy these updates. Thank you to all who gave their time and resources, including our advisory board, donors and sponsors to help make us better at what we do best … social action for social change!

We invite you to explore our website and learn about our degree offerings, support for students, extension and engagement at NC State and the community at large.

Warmest regards,

Karen Bullock, PhD, LCSW