Rate My Professor Yarneccia Dyson

Yarneccia D. Dyson serves as Dean and holds the Maconda Brown O’Connor Endowed Dean’s Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston. She assumed the role on June 1, 2025. Dyson previously served as Executive Director and Head of the School of Social Work and Professor of Social Work at North Carolina State University. Prior to that, she held positions at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as Associate Professor with Tenure and Department Chair in the Department of Social Work and Gerontology Program, and as Assistant Professor. She also served as Assistant Professor at Benedict College, Visiting Scholar at James Madison University, and Graduate Faculty Member at the University of Alabama.

Dyson earned a Ph.D. in Social Work Policy, Planning, and Administration with a Social Science Cognate in Public Health from Clark Atlanta University’s Whitney M. Young, Jr. School of Social Work, an MSW from Florida State University in 2003, and a BSW from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in 2002. Her scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Social Work Education, Social Work in Public Health, Journal of American College Health, and Affilia – Journal of Women and Social Work. As a social and behavioral scientist, Dyson’s work centers on health disparities research. She has held leadership roles including service on the CSWE Futures Task Force and the CSWE Commission on Diversity and Social and Economic Justice. Dyson brings expertise in academic leadership, curriculum development, accreditation, and advancing inclusive excellence in higher education.