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AASWSW President Inducts 9 Fellows, Urges ‘Perseverance’
The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) welcomed 9 new Fellows on January 18, 2026, at an induction ceremony during the 2025 Society for Social Work Research conference in Washington, DC.
Academy President Michael A. Lindsey noted that the new Fellows "exemplify the best of social work scholarship and impact," and called on the entire membership to remain dedicated to high-impact research, practice and advocacy that advances social good. Despite funding challenges and shifting public priorities, the social needs that Fellows have dedicated themselves to improving continue to grow. "We must continue on, persevering, working to uncover knowledge that addresses society’s most pressing needs and translate it into impact," said Dr. Lindsey.
The 2026 inductees include:
Dr. Julian Chun-Chung Chow is the Hutto-Patterson Charitable Foundation Professor at the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. His research examines why eligible low-income immigrant and minority families underutilize social services, revealing how "one-size-fits-all" policies fail to account for the complex interactions between individuals, organizations, and communities. By developing multi-level intervention strategies, his work aims to create more responsive and accessible service delivery systems for underserved populations. His recent research includes a study on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans and the role of mutual aid organizations in responding to increased community need.
Dr. Tessa Evans-Campbell is a Professor and co-Executive Director of the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute at the University of Washington School of Social Work. A tribally-enrolled Snohomish scholar and former Tribal Council member, her research focuses on historical trauma and healing, substance use prevention, indigenous health disparities, and youth health interventions. She has served as PI or Co-PI on 17 federally funded research projects, including NIH-funded studies on culturally relevant substance use prevention and sexual health curricula for Native students. Dr. Evans-Campbell began her career as a Children's Social Worker in Los Angeles County and is a recipient of the University of Washington Lifetime Distinguished Teaching Award.
Dr. Patricia Kohl is the Michelle K. Trulaske Chair, Professor, and Research Director of the Hermann Center for Child and Family Development in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. A clinical social worker turned researcher, she is nationally recognized for developing, testing, and implementing interventions that strengthen parent-child relationships, improve young children's emotional and behavioral health, and prevent child maltreatment. Her scholarship spans clinical, community, and policy contexts in the U.S. and internationally, grounded in community-engaged and implementation science approaches. Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and other federal and foundation funders.
Dr. Hee Yun Lee is the Thomas P. Holland Distinguished Professor and Director of the Institute for Nonprofit Organizations at the University of Georgia School of Social Work. Her research focuses on digital health innovation and behavioral health to advance health equity for underserved populations, leading interdisciplinary teams across medicine, public health, engineering, and psychology. Over two decades, she has designed and tested technology-enhanced interventions — including AI-enabled and mobile tools — across cancer prevention, mental health, dementia caregiver support, substance use, and health literacy, supported by federal funders including NIH, HRSA, NSF, CDC, and SAMHSA. The author of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Lee was recently included in Elsevier's Stanford-compiled database of the world's top 2% most-cited scientists in Public Health.
Dr. Karen Lincoln is Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health and Director of the Center for Environmental Health Disparities Research at the University of California, Irvine. A leading social scientist, her research examines how environmental and social determinants shape mental health, chronic conditions, and brain health among Black Americans. She is the Founder and Director of Advocates for African American Elders, a health education program serving older adults in Southern California, and has authored more than 90 publications and secured over 30 research grants. Recognized among the top 2% of scientists worldwide by Elsevier and Stanford University for three consecutive years, Dr. Lincoln is also a recipient of the NIMH James Jackson Memorial Award.
Dr. Jennifer Mosley is the George Herbert Jones Professor at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago, and Editor of Social Service Review. Her scholarship examines how human service nonprofits, philanthropic foundations, and government agencies collaborate to shape social policy and implement social programming, with a focus on promoting voice, equity, and system capacity. Her recent work addresses the democratic challenges of evidence-based practice mandates and the growing influence of randomized controlled trials on the nonprofit human service sector.
Dr. Michelle Munson is a Professor at NYU Silver School of Social Work and Co-Director of NYU Silver's Youth & Young Adult Mental Health Group. An internationally recognized expert in mental health services for adolescents and young adults, her research spans youth mental health, positive youth development, access to care, and pathways to services, with a current focus on geographic variation in service access. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Adolescent Health, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, and Emerging Adulthood, and is a dedicated mentor to the next generation of social work and youth development professionals.
Dr. Danielle Parrish is the Steve Hicks Professor in Addictions and Substance Abuse Services and Associate Director of the Health Behavior Research and Training Institute at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work. A former clinical social worker, her research focuses on developing and testing health behavior change interventions, integrating research into real-world practice settings, and leveraging technology to expand intervention reach. She is currently leading a five-year NIH NIDA-funded randomized controlled trial testing the Choices-Teen intervention to reduce substance-exposed pregnancy among adolescent girls involved in the juvenile justice system. A former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Social Work Education, Dr. Parrish has also served as principal investigator or co-investigator on grants from NIH, the CDC, and HRSA.
Dr. Desmond Patton is Penn's thirty-first Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor and the Waldo E. Johnson Jr. Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments in the School of Social Policy and Practice and the Annenberg School for Communication, and secondary appointments at the Perelman School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. A member of the National Academy of Medicine, his research examines how social media shapes gun violence, grief, and loss, and how AI can misread youth language and culture. He developed the Contextual Analysis of Social Media (CASM) framework to integrate culture, context, and inclusion into machine learning, and is advancing a joy-informed AI agenda that treats joy as a tool for equity and human connection. Dr. Patton serves on advisory councils for Spotify, Axon, and TikTok.
About the Academy
Established in 2010, the Academy is an honorific society of distinguished scholars and practitioners dedicated to achieving excellence in the field of social work and social welfare through high-impact work that advances social good. Its membership includes more than 200 Fellows who are prominent scholars, top researchers and practitioners. The nomination and election of new Fellows is conducted annually, and new Academy Presidents are elected every 3 years.