In her first year as a Ph.D. at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, Rebecca Gomez (Ph.D. ’12) would sit in her data analysis class in the basement of the building, often wondering what her purpose at the school should be.
Now, more than a decade later, her purpose is to serve as the school’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs – and she now leads meetings in the same classroom that she sat in all those years ago.
Hired in Summer 2023, Dr. Gomez works with leadership, faculty, staff, and students to advance the school’s mission of providing national leadership to promote social and economic justice, alleviate critical social problems, and enhance human well-being.
Before coming to work at UT Austin, she served in significant leadership positions at Our Lady of the Lake University and Virginia Commonwealth University, including serving as interim dean at VCU’s School of Social Work.
Coming back to Texas was a decision that Gomez was excited to make, saying that it was the “perfect time” to return to the Forty Acres. She is passionate about building up students, developing top-level scholars, and leveraging the “huge resource” that SHS is to the region and state, especially in creating relationship-building social workers. “These students are the future of our profession, but our profession is kind of the future of our world,” Dr. Gomez said.
The Well-Being of Students
Thinking about the future and the well- being of the next generation is a common element in Dr. Gomez’s life philosophy. She is a national expert in child and foster care wellness, with a research emphasis on complex trauma, child welfare workforce development, youth empowerment, substance use impacts on family systems, and more.
She also thinks often about the well-being of students, especially first-generation students who are a significant portion of the student body at SHS. Dr. Gomez remembers the anxieties she had as a student herself and wants new students to be provided opportunities to engage with faculty, especially by “just being in the room.”
Since taking over the role of associate dean, Dr. Gomez has built new programs such as Community Connect, which pairs up students with faculty and grows interconnectivity between the two. Community Connect is an event where once a month, students can meet their faculty members, share a meal, and informally – yet purposefully – be with their social work community.
“These students are extremely talented, they’re extremely smart, and if they’re in that shared space, those talents will become evident,” Gomez said. “The University of Texas is a big place, and we have the opportunity to make it feel a little bit smaller with our community.”
Looking to the future
With a planned school move to West Campus, a record amount of student support funding, and new opportunities for students, Dr. Gomez is unquestionably the most optimistic individual at SHS.
When asked what she was most excited about for the future of the school, it’s hard for her to pick just one thing: “What am I not excited about?”
She sees a new era for SHS this year, both literally and figuratively as the school moves to Walter Webb Hall. She’s excited about well-needed facility updates, collaborations with other schools at UT for interdisciplinary research, integrating more events for students, and so much more.
Above all else though, she’s excited to keep meeting with students and building up scholars in new, exciting ways.
“I think we have the opportunity to all work together to do things in this world differently,” Dr. Gomez said. “Whatever ‘differently’ may look like, I know we n do that with the great minds we have.””