New UNC School of Social Work vice dean aims to create community resources

Robert L. Hawkins will assume the newly created role as the UNC School of Social Work's vice dean on July 1. The role, he said, focuses on internal processes at the school, including faculty affairs, faculty development and increasing resources for staff and academic units.

“He will help us to continue to implement our strategic plan, will oversee policies and procedures of the School — including reaccreditation of our MSW degree and advancement of our Ph.D. program — and will work very closely with the excellent team of faculty and staff members who support our students,” UNC School of Social Work dean Ramona Denby-Brinson said in a statement.

Hawkins, a North Carolina native, said it was growing up in a low-income rural area that fostered his love for social work.

“A lot of my background was in social policy, because I really wanted to change the system for the better. And especially for folks who didn't feel empowered, [or] were marginalized or placed at risk. So I wanted to be an advocate for those folks,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins is currently the associate dean for academic and faculty affairs at N.C. State University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences in addition to previously serving as the associate dean for academic and faculty affairs at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work.

Hawkins never forgot where he came from, former colleague Carol Tosone said, adding that his impact in social work has extended beyond academia — Hawkins’ own daughter is pursuing social work. She said his legacy is not only professional, but also personal.

Tosone worked with Hawkins at NYU. In fact, Hawkins said she was the first person he met at the university.

“The thing that's beautiful about Robert's work is that he's a theoretician. His work has policy implications and his research is solid and really benefits a lot of the clients we work with who are at risk,” Tosone said.

After working in social policy for many years, Hawkins' focus shifted to explore the psychological impacts of growing up impoverished. 

When people experience poverty from a young age, he said, it’s hard to come out unscathed. But it was the resilience of people he interacted with that really inspired him to help people at a deeper level.

“I've done my own research on poverty within the United States and outside of the United States. And more and more, I see that connection that we really, while we fix the system, sometimes we have to help people fix themselves,” he said.

Although there are many different types of mental health professionals, he said, social workers take a closer look at both the person and their environment, especially amid a growing mental health crisis. People's environments can include their close relationships, daily life and the policies that shape their lives, he said. 

Social workers serve people — from immigrants to those with low income to trans individuals — who are being attacked by the very systems that should be supporting them, he said. 

For ten years at NYU, Hawkins led students on trips to the Philippines, where they performed community needs assessments and developed projects to address specific needs, including providing housing, a health clinic and a community garden, he said. 

Hawkins was moved by what he saw.

“And it was people who were struggling to make a living. It was a community that had a 70 percent poverty rate. The mayor from that town contacted me and said, ‘I need something but I don't know what I need,'" Hawkins said.

Marya Gwadz, a former colleague of Hawkins, said in a statement that he approaches his research with rigor but also with kindness.

“He is a leader and has vision. He has a calm and reassuring way of managing complex dynamics in the classroom and among faculty,” she said. “I knew I had a lot to learn from him.” 

Gwadz and Hawkins met six years ago and have since collaborated on many projects, including her research team that aims to address racial and ethnic inequities in healthcare, Gwadz said.

If you ask Hawkins what he enjoys in his free time, the answer is threefold: comic books, good food and crime shows. His wife works in psychotherapy, a similarly stressful field. So, he said, they like to indulge in good food and good shows when they can. Comic books are his personal interest.

“Dr. Hawkins’ work, career, experiences and deep investment in North Carolina communities are worthy of emulation,” Denby-Brinson said. “He will be an inspiration to our students.”

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