Paul Smokowski

A distinguished social work professor with a track record in research fundraising will be Kansas University’s next dean of the School of Social Welfare, KU announced Wednesday.

Paul Smokowski, Distinguished Foundation Professor in Child and Adolescent Resilience in the Arizona State University School of Social Work, will start July 1.

He will replace Mary Ellen Kondrat, who served as dean eight years before retiring in June 2014. Interim dean is Tom McDonald, professor and associate dean for research.

In addition to his role at Arizona State University, Smokowski serves as director of the North Carolina Academic Center for Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention and as a research professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, according to KU. Smokowski’s research teams have received more than $10 million in federal funding from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health. He has published more than 75 articles and book chapters on issues related to risk, resilience, acculturation, adolescent mental health, family stress and youth violence prevention.

Smokowski’s interdisciplinary background in social welfare, child development and public health will benefit the school and its missions, Jeffrey Vitter, KU provost and executive vice chancellor, said in a news release. Those missions include educating students, conducting scholarly inquiry, formulating social policy and developing service deliveries, he said.

Smokowski called KU’s nationally ranked School of Social Welfare a longtime leader in developing the strengths-based approach to service for vulnerable members of society.

“KU’s social welfare faculty are regarded with the highest respect nationally and internationally for addressing the most complex social problems of our time,” he said in a news release. “As dean, I look forward to continuing to deepen the school’s commitment to engaged scholarship, fashioning effective programs and policies that can be widely disseminated.”

Smokowski has dual bachelor’s degrees in psychology and theater arts from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He received his master’s degree in social work from SUNY-Buffalo and his doctorate in social welfare from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Vitter said he expected Smokowski to build on progress from Kondrat’s tenure. Under her leadership the school doubled and diversified its external funding for research, created a competency-based curriculum, increased program accessibility by initiating the first master’s program at KU taught partially online and expanded the master’s program to western Kansas with programs in Hays and Garden City, according to KU.