KU announces name of second candidate for dean of social welfare position

Twente Hall, home to the School of Social Welfare, 1545 Lilac Lane on the KU campus.

The University of Kansas has announced the second of four finalists for dean of the School of Social Welfare expected to visit campus in coming weeks.

Wesley Church, professor and director of the School of Social Work at Louisiana State University, will give a public presentation at 2:30 p.m. Monday in the Centennial Room at the Kansas Union, 1301 Jayhawk Blvd.

Church’s research expertise includes juvenile justice, delinquency, parental response, attitudes toward sex offenders and racial and gender bias, according to KU.

At Louisiana State, where he has held the endowed professor and director position since 2014, Church has overseen the expansion of degree options — including online and dual programs with other disciplines — and supervised increased faculty publications and funded research, according to KU. Previously he was at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, from 2003 to 2014. He also has worked as a correctional officer and case worker with the Utah Department of Corrections.

Church received doctoral and master’s degrees in social work and a bachelor’s degree in art history, all from the University of Utah.

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Dean candidates are asked to present on the topic: “The Social Work Profession in 2027 and the Role of Schools of Social Work in Preparing For It.” Remaining candidates will be named about two days before their respective visits, according to KU. Presentations are planned for:

• Candidate 3, at 2:30 p.m. April 24 in the Jayhawk Room at the Union.

• Candidate 4, at 2:30 p.m. April 26 in the Centennial Room at the Union.

The first finalist, who presented Thursday, was Michelle Mohr Carney, a professor and director of the School of Social Work at Arizona State University.

KU’s School of Social Welfare dean position has been in flux since former dean Paul Smokowski announced his resignation in March 2016, following student diversity protests targeting him personally. Smokowski remains a professor at KU, and professor of social welfare Steve Kapp is the school’s interim dean.