UB Names Shulman Dean of School of Social Work

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Lawrence Shulman, Ed.D., has been named dean of the University at Buffalo School of Social Work by UB President William R. Greiner.

Shulman is professor and co-chair of clinical practice and chair of the Group Work Department in the School of Social Work at Boston University. His appointment, made on the recommendation of UB Provost Thomas E. Headrick, is effective Jan. 1, 1998. He will serve as dean-designate from Aug. 26 through Dec. 31.

Shulman will succeed Fredrick W. Seidl, Ph.D., who had served as the school’s chief academic and administrative officer since 1985. Seidl will return to the faculty as a professor and researcher.

Headrick noted that Shulman “enjoys an international reputation for his scholarship in the field of interactional social-work practice” and has co-developed a series of videotapes on teaching social-work practice and diversity that involved extensive work with minorities.

“He brings to his deanship broad experience in faculty governance, the accumulated wisdom of over 30 years as a faculty member at five outstanding research universities and a strong record of attracting funding for innovative programs and research,” Headrick said.

Prior to his work at Boston University, Shulman was a professor and research project director for the School of Social Work at the University of British Columbia and an associate professor and research project director at the School of Social Work at McGill University. He also has held faculty positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers University.

He has published 16 books and monographs and more than 20 articles and book chapters.

He has received funding from numerous sources for a variety of research projects, the most recent of which addressed the impact of unemployment on family stress and the development of a model for predicting the effectiveness of services to families with children at risk and children in care.

Shulman earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from City College of New York, a master’s degree in social work, with a specialty in social work practice, from Columbia University, and a doctorate in educational psychology from Temple University.

Programs in the UB School of Social Work lead to the professional master’s degree and the doctoral degree. The curriculum for a master’s degree, which can be pursued on either a full-time or part-time basis, provides students with a theoretical and conceptual foundation, as well as a strong focus on applied skills. The full-time doctoral curriculum prepares students for leadership in social work through research and scholarship.

In 1994, the school marked the 60th anniversary of its first accreditation by the American Association of Schools of Social Work.

Shulman will oversee the activities of full-time and part-time faculty members, as well as “field faculty” who supervise students while they are working off-campus gaining experience in the field. He will have overall responsibility for the development of academic programs, faculty recruitment and advancement, and for maintaining standards of teaching, scholarship and creative activity.

He also will have chief responsibility for planning and budgeting, equipment and space allocations, and personnel, and oversee development activities within the school and among its alumni and supporters.