Lori Messinger

Background

About Lori Messinger

I am proud to serve as Dean and Professor in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Prior to joining UTCSW, I worked at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) from 2011-2019, where I served as Professor and Director of the School of Social Work, Associate Vice Chancellor for Community Engagement, and Senior Fellow for Diversity Initiatives. I also completed the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows Leadership Program, spending the 2017-2018 year at Virginia Commonwealth University focusing on leadership. Prior to joining UNCW, I was undergraduate program director at the University of Kansas, and served on the social work faculty at the University of Alabama and North Carolina State University. I received a BA in Philosophy from Douglass College, an MA in Political Science from Rutgers University, and a Master of Social Work degree and a PhD in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My scholarship focuses on cultural competence in social work education and practice, especially with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations; and organizational change processes, especially in higher education institutions. I collaborated on research projects with the Council on Social Work Education, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and Lambda Legal. I served on national and/or state boards and committees for the American Council on Education’s Women’s Network, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of North Carolina, the American Social Health Association, the American Association of University Women, the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work, the North Carolina Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the North Carolina Commission on Domestic Violence, the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, and the Council on Social Work Education, as well as Equality organizations in Alabama and Kansas. Though currently a happy Knoxville, TN resident, I was raised in Willingboro, New Jersey, and I am a 'Boro girl at heart.