Dr. Jeffrey Edleson,  MSSW ’75, PhD ’79, Selected as 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient

The Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work Board of Visitors recently selected Dr. Jeffrey Edleson, MSSW ’75, PhD ’79 as the recipient of the 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award.

Headshot of Jeffrey Edleson
Dr. Jeffrey Edleson

Professor Edleson recently retired as the Dean of the University of California-Berkeley School of Social Welfare where he served for seven years and will remain on the faculty as the Harry & Riva Specht Chair Emeritus in Publicly Supported Social Services. Prior to joining Berkeley, he was a professor of social work at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work for 29 years and was the founding director of the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse.

Dr. Edleson is a leading authority on children exposed to domestic violence. He has published over 130 articles and 12 books focusing on domestic violence, group work, and program evaluation. His work also focuses on international parental abduction in cases of domestic violence and the evaluation of interventions and policies on family violence.

He was named one of the dozen highest impact scholars in social work in a 2016 study by Hodge, Kremer & Vaughn published in Research on Social Work Practice. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.

He has conducted intervention research and provided technical assistance to programs across North America as well as in numerous countries including Australia, Argentina, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, and Singapore. He was a member of the U.S. National Advisory Council on Violence Against Women and of the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Global Violence Prevention workshop planning committee. He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Panel on Research on Violence Against Women and served as a consultant to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judge and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Professor Edleson is an Associate Editor of the journal Violence Against Women and has served on numerous editorial boards. He is Co-Editor of the Oxford University Press book series on Interpersonal Violence and the Sage book series on Violence Against Women.

The Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work awards an annual Distinguished Alumni Award to an outstanding graduate of the School. Selected alumni have made significant contributions to social work, social policy, and/or the community.

Nominations are collected for Distinguished Alumni Award each year. Please email alumni@socwork.wisc.edu with questions about the nomination process.