Dr. Selma Botman, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Yeshiva University, announced the appointment of Danielle Wozniak as the new dean of Wurzweiler School of Social Work. “Danielle is a talented and imaginative administrator who has an inspired vision for the future of social work education,” said Botman. “She will bring expertise, intelligence, energy and heart to Wurzweiler. Not only does she care deeply about students and the cutting-edge curriculum we should offer, she is dedicated to faculty excellence, and has a track record of collaboration with her colleagues. I am truly delighted to welcome Danielle to our community and am certain that her sparkle will light up Wurzweiler and Yeshiva University as a whole.”
Wozniak, who has a PhD in anthropology, a sixth-year degree in education administration and supervision and an MSW, brings to the position more than 20 years’ expertise in the field of higher education. She was dean of arts and sciences at the College of New Rochelle and director of the school of social work at University of New England (Portland, Maine), where she was responsible for significant growth in online and campus programs. She was also director of the bachelor of social work program and co-director of the sexual assault prevention program at the University of Montana.
Wozniak also has extensive teaching experience, having held positions at the University of Montana, Western Michigan University, Eastern Connecticut State University, University of Connecticut and Connecticut College. Her courses have covered domestic violence, Native American issues, gender and sexuality, kinship relations, foster parenting and STEM programming. She also co-founded an online mental health experience company, Powerful Me!, which combines mental health interventions and techniques with cutting-edge game technology to assist women in making difficult life changes or heal from painful life experiences including recovery from domestic violence.
She has authored two books (They’re All My Children: Foster Mothering in America and Good-Bye Baby Venus) and co-authored three others (Back From the Brink: Women Leaders in Times of Academic Crisis, Surviving Domestic Violence: A guide to Healing Your Soul and Building Your Future and Consuming Motherhood). She has also contributed to numerous scholarly publications, including Journal of Progressive Human Services; Journal of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry; Current Anthropology and Women’s History Review.
Wozniak is also a prolific presenter on such topics as domestic violence intervention, teaching social policy, distance education, cultural sensitivity for anthropologists, ethnographic field research and foster mothering.
“I am thrilled to be the next dean of the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, a school with a long and proud history of academic excellence, innovation, social justice and response to community need,” said Wozniak. “I am also thrilled to have the opportunity to work with an outstanding and distinguished faculty and to assume the critical work of helping our school and our profession navigate the complexities of the 21st century based on Jewish knowledge and values.”
Wozniak will succeed Dr. Nancy Beckerman, who became interim dean of the School when Dean Carmen Hendricks Ortiz passed away in February 2016.
By JLNJ Staff
