Welcoming UT’s Newest Dean
Monday night we held a reception to welcome UT’s newest dean, Luis Zayas of the School of Social Work. As many of you know, longtime social work dean Barbara White stepped down recently after 18 years of leadership, and a national search led us to Washington University in St. Louis, where Dr. Zayas was the founding director of the Center for Latino Family Research.
Dr. Zayas is a psychologist and social worker whose research has examined child and adolescent mental health, maternal mental health in pregnancy, and parent-child relations. He also has studied cross-cultural factors in child-rearing behavior, family functioning, psychiatric diagnosis, and alcohol use among Latino men.
He is the author of a recent book on Latina suicide. Luis gave an interesting interview on that subject on Latino USA in 2010.
I’m delighted Luis has joined the UT Austin family, and I know the school’s 43 faculty members, 800 students, and 6,000 alumni join me in wishing him success in writing the School of Social Work’s next chapter.
Dr. Zayas has a tough act to follow in Dean White. I was unbelievably fortunate to have her as dean during my doctoral studies there. As one of those 6,000 alumni, I wish Dr. Zayas a successful tenure as dean, and hope he knows what remarkably fine faculty are his to nurture at the UT-Austin School of Social Work.
David H. “DJ” Johnson, Ph.D. Class of 2009
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Millersville University of Pennsylvania