In this academic year, five Texas Social Work faculty were named to endowed positions. They are listed below in alphabetical order.
Allan Cole — Robert Lee Sutherland Endowed Chair in Mental Health and Social Policy
Allan Cole, dean of Texas Social Work, serves as the Robert Lee Sutherland Endowed Chair in Mental Health and Social Policy at The University of Texas at Austin. Dean Cole, in addition to his leadership as the dean of Texas Social Work, also serves as the deputy for medical humanities and technology and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Dell Medical School. Cole also holds the Bert Kruger Smith Centennial Professorship in Social Work. As a scholar, Dean Cole is a nationally recognized authority on chronic illness, health humanities, bereavement, and the study of spirituality and religion in social work.
Fiona Conway — Fellow, Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professorship in Services to Children and Families
Dr. Fiona Conway serves as the newest fellow for Texas Social Work’s Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professorship in Services to Children and Families. Conway is an associate professor at Texas Social Work and associate director of research at the Addiction Research Institute. She also serves as director of adjunct affairs for Texas Social Work. Her research primarily focuses on substance use behaviors emphasizing recovery support services, digital health solutions, and substance use among adolescents and young adults.
Rebecca Gomez — Fellow, David Johnson Professorship in Social Work
Dr. Rebecca Gomez serves as the inaugural fellow for the newly established David Johnson Professorship in Social Work, effective this August. Gomez, who currently serves as an associate professor and the associate dean for academic affairs at Texas Social Work, is a leading researcher in the field of complex trauma and is nationally recognized for her work on child and family well-being.
Danielle Parrish — Steve Hicks Professor in Addictions and Substance Abuse Services
Dr. Danielle Parrish serves as Texas Social Work’s Steve Hicks Professor in Addictions and Substance Abuse Services. Dr. Parrish is a professor at Texas Social Work and associate director of the Health Behavior Research and Training Institute. Her research focuses on bridging the research-practice gap by developing and testing feasible and efficient behavioral health interventions and improving the implementation of empirically supported interventions.
Mary Velasquez — Lori Holleran Steiker Endowed Faculty Chair in Substance Use and Recovery
Dr. Mary M. Velasquez serves as the inaugural holder of the Lori Holleran Steiker Chair. Dr. Velasquez also serves as the Centennial Professor in Leadership for Community, Professional and Corporate Excellence and as the director of the Health Behavior Research and Training Institute, a nationally renowned center specializing in the development and dissemination of health behavior interventions. Velasquez conducts research on integrated primary care, screening and brief intervention, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, alcohol and drug misuse, prenatal health, HIV prevention, and smoking cessation.