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School of Social Work

August 8, 2025, Filed Under: Current, Issues, Summer 2025

Three Faculty to Hold Endowments

Faculty selected for advancements in social work research and practice

Fiona Conway, Ph.D., will serve as the newest fellow for UT Social Work’s Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professorship in Services to Children and Families, effective this August.

Dr. Conway is an assistant professor at UT Social Work and associate director of research at the Addiction Research Institute. She also serves as director of adjunct affairs.

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, Ph.D., will serve as the inaugural fellow for the newly established David Johnson Professorship in Social Work, effective this August.

The professorship, which is the newest endowed professorship at UT Social Work, was created through a significant gift from the estate of Dr. David H. Johnson, a graduate of UT Social Work’s doctoral program.

Dr. Gomez, who currently serves as an associate professor and the associate dean for academic affairs at UT 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, Ph.D., will be the newest Steve Hicks Social Work Professor in Addictions and Substance Abuse Services, effective in August.

She is a professor at UT 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.

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THE UTOPIAN SUMMER 2025 EDITION

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