Welcome to the UNLV School of Social Work where we have a rich tradition and dedication to our core values in the social work profession. We strive to instill the values of social and economic justice, respect and worth of others, cultural diversity, and Self-determination. In addition, we foster a strengths-based environment that emphasizes openness, collaboration, and engagement striving towards individual and community resiliency. These values are what shape our curriculum, motivate our faculty's research and will ultimately help you develop into quality social work leaders that make a difference in the regional, national, and international communities.

The UNLV School of Social Work closely follows the national accreditation standards established by the Council on Social Work Education. This is accomplished by teaching practice behaviors that help you develop a core set of professional competencies. As a result, you will develop the ability to respond to the constantly changing urban, rural and global environments that often precipitate a plethora of social problems. We prepare you to respond to the needs of Southern Nevada and beyond by:

• Offering faculty that average over 20 years of professional experience, teaching, and research in the areas of child welfare, public policy, mental health, substance abuse, direct practice, management and community practice, research, health, and aging.
• Providing rich field education experiences within social service agencies in the community that provide practical social work experience.
• Giving you the opportunity to choose to specialize in direct practice, or management and community practice.
• Supporting faculty research as it translates to the global community so that our faculty remains educated on the latest social work developments.
• Engaging in practice-informed research and research-informed practice.
• Emphasizing the evidence-based model and use of empirically supported treatments.
• Striving towards new, innovative educational initiatives for our faculty, staff, and students.
• Being fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education.
• I encourage you to learn about our programs, meet with our faculty, and get started being leaders at helping create and facilitate resilience in our global community.

Carlton D. Craig , Ph.D.
Director and Professor