Announcing George Leibowitz as Incoming Dean of the School of Social Work

March 25, 2024

Dear Rutgers–New Brunswick Community,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. George Leibowitz as Dean of the School of Social Work (SSW), a role he will assume on July 1, 2024. As an educator, interdisciplinary scholar, administrator, and social worker who is committed to helping individuals and elevating the common good, Dr. Leibowitz is an excellent match for SSW—the nation’s 16th-ranked school of social work whose rankings have risen steadily for the past 15 years, and whose portfolio of research, sponsored projects, and federal awards has grown impressively over the past decade.

Dr. Leibowitz currently serves Stony Brook University as Professor in the School of Social Welfare, Director of the Ph.D. Program in Social Welfare, and chair of the Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee with cross-appointments as Professor in the School of Nursing and Professor of Psychiatry in the Renaissance School of Medicine. Previously he served as chair of the school’s Psychopathology and Psychopharmacology Sequence and is founding chair of its Forensic Social Work program and the Integrated Health: Physical, Psychological, and Social Well-Being specialization in the MSW Program. He also has a visiting appointment as Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai, India. Before joining Stony Brook in 2016 he served the University of Vermont, most recently as chair of its Department of Social Work and a faculty member in the School of Nursing and the Vermont Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Program. Dr. Leibowitz received his MSW and PhD at the University of Denver.

He is also a dedicated and highly regarded social work practitioner. His current service is at Montfort Therapeutic Residence in Port Jefferson, New York, where he provides program consultation and training, risk assessments, and clinical treatment with adolescents with sexually harmful behavior. His prior social work practice included consultation/training at the Vermont Department for Children and Family Services; at Stetson School residential treatment program in Barre, Massachusetts; as a clinical/research consultant at Northeastern Family Institute in Burlington, Vermont; as well as a clinical supervisor at Progressive Therapy Systems in Denver, Colorado.

Dr. Leibowitz is an expert on opioid addiction and is an interdisciplinary researcher implementation scientist, consultant, trainer, and licensed clinician in adult and adolescent mental health and substance abuse assessment and treatment across the lifespan. His research focuses on the social determinants of health and health disparities, and he has worked with his colleagues at Stony Brook to bring cutting-edge artificial intelligence to solve real-world community issues and drive better health outcomes through informatics. He recently served as the Director of the Community and Stakeholder Engagement Network for the Long Island Network for Clinical and Translational Science (LINCATS) module as part of Stony Brook’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), with the aim of enhancing trusting relationships between researchers, patients, and community members and reducing health inequalities by race and socioeconomic status.  Recent research projects and federal grants include Stakeholder-Involved Modeling of Opioid Risk in the Emergency Department with Machine Learning Integrating Multimodal Data. Dr Leibowitz has published two co-authored books and his research has been disseminated in journals such as JAMA, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Journal of Primary Care and Community Health, and Child and Adolescent Social Work. Additionally, he served as a cluster leader on a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) grant with the University of Vermont investigating the integration of evidence-supported behavioral health and primary care services. He was also awarded a $1.8 million U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant, a collaboration between Stony Brook’s schools of social welfare and nursing, to deliver behavioral health screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment with underserved populations within Suffolk County, New York.

Dr. Leibowitz will succeed Chancellor Emeritus, University Professor, and Distinguished Professor Richard L. Edwards, who has served as SSW’s Interim Dean since July 1, 2023, and who served as chair of the SSW Dean search committee that recruited Dr. Leibowitz.

Please join me in welcoming Dean Leibowitz and in thanking Dr. Edwards for his distinguished service.

Sincerely,

Francine Conway, Ph.D.
Chancellor and Distinguished Professor
Rutgers University–New Brunswick