Final candidate for dean of social welfare present Wednesday

LAWRENCE — Stephen Kapp, professor and interim dean of the School of Social Welfare at the University of Kansas, will make a public presentation Wednesday, April 26, as a candidate for the dean of social welfare.

Kapp is the final of four candidates for the position who will make public presentations during their respective campus visits. His talk will be at 2:30 p.m. in the Centennial Room of the Kansas Union.

His research expertise includes juvenile justice and agency-based program evaluation, including outcome-oriented program management and consumer-based input. His publications include the book “Agency-based Program Evaluation,” as well as several journal publications and book chapters, and peer-reviewed and invited presentations. He is an associate editor of the publication Social Work.

Kapp has been serving as acting/interim dean of the school since March 2016.  He has been a member of the KU faculty since 1997 and has held a number of leadership roles, including serving as assistant dean for academic affairs of the school from 2011 to 2016. Prior to joining KU, he was an instructor at Michigan State University and a field liaison for its master’s of social work student practicum. He has been a consultant for the Johnson County Juvenile Court Systems and a number of agencies and organizations in Michigan. In 2014, Kapp received KU’s Leading Light Award for principal investigators with external awards in excess of $1 million. He also received the Council on Social Work Education Summer Leadership Scholarship to attend the Harvard Institutes of Higher Education’s Management Development Program. 

Kapp holds a doctorate in social science and social work from Michigan State University, a master’s in social work from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s in social work from the University of Wisconsin.

The dean of social welfare search committee, led by dean of the School of Law Stephen Mazza, invites students, faculty and staff to attend the presentations and provide feedback of their impressions. Each candidate will prepare a presentation on the topic “The Social Work Profession in 2027 and the Role of Schools of Social Work in Preparing For It.”

All candidate presentations will be recorded and available for viewing online after the final candidate has appeared on campus. Evaluations of all candidates are due by 5 p.m. May 3.

Ranked in the top 20 nationally, the KU School of Social Welfare is an innovator in social work theory development and in research that makes positive contributions to communities. The school is the most established social welfare program in the state of Kansas and the only program to offer degrees at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels. In addition to the Lawrence campus, the school offers instruction and outreach in the Kansas City metropolitan area as well as western Kansas through Fort Hays State University and Garden City Community College.